Felt Doughnut Tutorial

It's been party-central on the blog here lately because it's my favorite way to create (and it involves so many DIYs that I have lots to talk about!)  So bear with me a few more times as I share about my daughter's 3rd birthday party and all the fun elements within it.  Today I want to show you how I made felt doughnuts. They were used as decor & then the kids at the party got to take them home as a favor to use in their own play kitchens!  So even if you aren't planning a party, you'll definitely want to read on and make these for your own imaginative play! Because after all, there's never a bad time for a doughnut.

[This post contains affiliate links.  Purchasing through these links earns me a small commission at no extra charge to you. This allows me to continue making new content for the blog. Thank you!]

Have you ever read If You Give A Mouse a Cookie?  There's a whole series that includes the original mouse cookie, Moose a Muffin, Pig a Pancake, Cat a Cupcake and of course Dog a Donut (just to name a few). Our whole family loves these books!  My daughter's birthday party was themed around the series, meaning that each table or section was based on a different book.  This table was all about Dog and his donut!

I found this great tutorial on felt doughnuts and used the basic idea to make my own.  I'm not sure why she left an opening on the outside though so I changed that and also sewed the topping on before turning it.  Hope that makes it a bit easier for you (and less hand sewing so it's faster!)

First cut out your circles from felt (2 pieces) and cut a hole from the middle of each.  Then from a different color felt, create an icing piece (also with a hole in the middle).  I hand embroidered some sprinkles on it then top stitched with my sewing machine to attach it to my felt.  Don't forget to keep the middle hole spot open for turning!  Here's how it will look once the icing has been attached:

Next, take your 2 pieces (one just the tan felt, 1 with the frosting attached to the tan) and putting them right sides together sew all the way around the outside of the doughnut.  Keep the middle hole open. It will look like this when this step is done:

(The photo above is of 2 different doughnuts. On the back of it you will only see tan. On the front you will see the stiching from your frosting) It's like a little sandwich from the side view.

Next, carefully turn the doughnut inside out using the open middle hole.

After everything is turned right side out, use Poly-fil or another stuffing to give the doughnuts their shape and blanket stitch the middle hole closed.  It's easiest if you do a little stuffing, a small batch of stitches, some more stuffing, some more stitches until you make it all the way around.

The blanket stitch gives it a secure hold for a long play life and is visually a prettier stitch for projects like this (it's also a very basic, beginner stitch so it's easy to do!) 


That's it.  These doughnuts are pretty easy in terms of dimensional felt food and are about the cutest things ever!  We did all sprinkles with different colored frosting but you could do plain, just frosting, drizzle, nuts, the possibilities are endless!  What would you put on yours? Would you use them for a party like this (or an entire doughnut themed party?) or just for play? Let me know & follow me on Instagram!

'Toy Story' DIY Birthday Party

I am all about having fun birthday parties on a budget.  Creating memories and making it magical without buying a bunch of stuff that ends up getting tossed a day later.  Not to mention, I find joy in creating so having a big outlet for it makes me happy.  That's why I've blogged about birthday parties time and time again.  Here's a few from the past:

Book theme
Big Adventure [girl]
Construction theme
Tutus & Tools [girl]

For the first time ever, one of my kiddos actually wanted a cartoon-based theme: Toy Story.  Our house has become TS obsessed so it was no surprise to me (we dressed up as TS characters for Halloween too *here's a photo of us*) and I knew that it was going to be a fun and easy theme since it's such a common/popular one.  Pinterest has lots of ideas, a few in which I did but I also added a few that are new. So scroll on down and hopefully be inspired to create your own Toy Story party with almost all DIY elements!

[Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to products I used in my projects.  Purchasing through these links earns me a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thank you for supporting my blog.]




Let's talk decor, food and my favorite- activities! First up...


Decorations:

The easiest way to decorate the walls for a Toy Story party is of course- Clouds!  It's a classic symbol from the movies and all you need is white paper. I also (very last minute) made an etch-a-sketch design on a white board and hung it up to add something else to the wall.  Looking back I wish I would have added red paper around the outside to make it look more real, but it was a late night, last minute thought.  You win some, you lose some.

Using some miniature toys that were too small for table decor and my son's little letterboard, I made it look like Buzz put together a special message just for him:

I also made some cardboard blocks and painted them to spell out my son's name.  These were surprisingly time consuming so if you are going to do them, start early!

As for the table decorations, I separated them into themes a little:

Grab a collection of "Toy Story" toys like Woody, Buzz, Rex, etc. and stack them on tables with books and blocks.  We didn't own any of these toys a the time (he got them that day as gifts!)  but a friend of mine let me borrow everything from her.  Thank goodness for friends!

On one table I did Woody & Rex with books and blocks and hung "Woody themed" colored balloons above it.  On another table I did Buzz Lightyear with some cars (and of course the Pixar ball!) and hung Buzz colored balloons over it. It's all about positioning here- see how his foot is propped up on a block and he's holding the ball?  You don't need to spend a lot of money, you just need to get creative!

On both the Buzz table and our third table (with a Chatter phone from Toy Story 3- found that at a yard sale!) I ran a long roll of white paper down the center of the table and placed cups full of crayons on it so that guests could doodle while they enjoyed the party!

While the paper & crayons is sort of an activity, I have 2 even more fun ones coming up.  But first, let's talk...




Food!

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that the easier the better. I used to plan a ton of interesting foods and it stresses me out.  This year, I ran with the "Pizza Planet" theme from Toy Story and ordered pizza for pickup! Best idea ever.  Just pick it up and bring it home.  If you can find a Pizza Planet Truck toy, set it next to the boxes for instant decor.  If not, even print out a photo of the PP logo and put that next to it.

I also placed a Mr. Potato head next to bags of "Potato" chips (again... so easy!) and made fruit kabobs with the card "You've got a friend in me" (you know, because the fruit is all hanging out together like friends- ha!)  Lastly I made a green drink "LGM (Alien) Juice" and sweet tea (labeled "to infiniTEA and beyond)


We also made cupcakes and placed them on the "Blast off Rocket Cupcake Stand" (I got mine from Party City for $6 and it's so sturdy I saved it for future use!).  The frosting is just blue, purple and green mixed together in an icing bag (Buzz Lightyear colors) and topped with the same colored sprinkles (I think I found them at Walmart).

My son had a very specific idea for his cake- asking for a picture of Woody on one side, Buzz on the other and it to look like a galaxy on the side.   Since I have zero artistic skill, I used a transfer technique similar to this, except I only piped the outline instead of making it entirely filled in.  On the sides, I started like I was doing an ombre icing and let it mix together some before adding Wilton Galaxy Sprinkles (a little pricey but worth it. They are cool and we are still using them up!)

I wish I would have used a transfer for the words too but I clearly overestimated my handwriting skills too. My son didn't care, so that's what matters.



Now onto my favorite part:


Activities!

There are lots of 'Build a Forky' kits in stores & online but the character is chip board instead of an actual 3D utensil so I didn't like that idea.  Instead, we created our own.  On a table I laid out plastic forks & spoons, googly eyes, some sharpie markers (to draw the rest of the face), pipe cleaners, some generic play dough & cut apart craft sticks for the feet.  On a long piece of paper I wrote out the steps on how to build it (just for fun since it's pretty self explanatory) and set up a letterboard displaying the activity as well as a little embroidery I made previously:

[Photo from my Instagram page. Please follow me for more fun crafts!]

This was a fun little activity for people to do together!

Look at those great Forkies!

Then of course, was my big project for the birthday- a custom handmade Toy Story 'Face-in-Hole' (see my post on how to make it HERE).  My son specifically requested this and I knew I could make it.  It ended up being really fun for me to do and we still play with it every day 3 months later!

Lastly, my son had asked for a claw machine but seeing as I was already making the face-in-hole I thought that wasn't an option.  Then we remembered that his grandpa had a small one at his home.  In typical grandparent fashion, when we mentioned it, he spent a good amount of time making sure that it worked with individual bags of gummies per the birthday boy's request. (these kids are so spoiled aren't they? hehe) Needless to say, the kids loved playing it! Thanks grandpa!

Lastly, we whipped up this "Birthday Buzz" shirt, designed by the birthday boy himself (with some help from mommy!) using our Silhouette Cameo and heat-transfer vinyl:

I hope you've enjoyed seeing all the fun elements from our Toy Story birthday party and are feeling inspired to make your own. Some ideas are easier (or faster) than others but are all DIY and totally fun for a kids' party! Which is your favorite part? Don't forget to follow me on Instagram!

Simple Construction Themed Birthday Party

If you are familiar with my blog, you might have seen some of my older posts highlighting the details of my children's birthday parties. For some crazy reason, I like to pick themes that apparently don't exist.  At least on Pinterest- which let's be fair, in the DIY world that's where it's at. Because of that, I love to share the details with you here so that someday when you want that theme for your child's party you will be able to find a few things on the topic.

Wondering what in the world these themes were?
My son's 2nd birthday was "My Favorite Books" (perfect for kids who don't watch t.v./have favorite characters or who love reading).

The other was my daughter's 1st birthday which was a "Little One Big Adventure" theme. That theme by itself is very popular, but I found there was little to nothing out there for a more "girlish" perspective on it.

When my son turned 3 however, he wanted a 'Construction" theme. This idea was EVERYWHERE! I had so many cute DIYs in my Pinterest folder and started to get carried away. I couldn't possibly incorporate every cute idea I saw into the party. So I decided to make it simple. Often times we get a little carried away with parties and themes and we lose sight of what it's about: Celebrating this cool little guy and making it fun for him on his special day.


[Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Purchasing through these links gives me a small commission which I use to help bring you more content. This is at no additional charge to you. Thank you for supporting my blog.]


I did create my own special element though (hint, hint, it's a pretty special pinata)... scroll down to see what it is. Read on to see how I went simple to create a perfect party for my favorite little guy:

Is it really possible to have simple decor that doesn't cost much, take a lot of effort and still look put together? YES. Here's how:

Step 1- Theme the food.

It's the only thing besides *maybe* seeing your kid that people actually care about. So get good food and make it fit your theme to add a little extra fun.  Here are some ideas to get you started. We themed the foods for his second birthday party as well (it's easy to do!)

Incorporate dump trucks and other construction vehicles into the food setup to help draw in the theme. We just used some we already had around the house (clean them well before putting food in them!)

Using Picmonkey or even the Paint program, create "signs" that look like they belong on the construction site. Don't forget to include your creative names for foods!

I also made those "Dig In" signs (just printed on cardstock) and taped them to a section from my son's construction themed train set!  Add a few little worker guys and some safety cones and voila! Easy decor.


Print out some "Gas and Diesel" signs for the drinks and they are done...

I'm about to real with y'all. I saw this adorable idea for construction cone cups on Pinterest. You just take tape and wrap it around plastic cups. It SUCKED. The tape is hard to get to lay flat on the curved cup and maybe I'm just not that skilled but I made about 3 of them and stopped. Never again..

To finish up the food area, I put all the utensils in a toolbox we had lying around (my husband is a shop teacher so he had about 5 of these in storage from class projects!) Even though the red didn't match I wasn't about to re-paint it. The black, white and yellow looked great in there anyways!

Again, sign made on my computer & printed on cardstock. Themed wording of course...

Step 2: Decorations

Here's where it gets real easy. Assuming your kid already has some construction toys lying around (and they probably do if that's the theme you went with) your decorations are practically done! Grab some black tablecloths, run strips of yellow streamers down the middle and smack some construction vehicles on there. Boom, done.

We LOVE this CAT construction trucks set (a few of them seen in the bottom right photo). Both of my kids love to play with them and they have held up really well, especially for being inexpensive. (and they are great for little hands).


Of course, balloons and streamers are a classic party decor for kids. And we all know that those cheap dollar store balloons will get played with more than any gift from the party.

I made one final sign for the gift "table" (or in our case, gift fireplace) that says "dump gifts here". Cut up a few streamers and add a garbage truck and you're done. (Okay, a garbage truck isn't technically 'construction' but my son was (is still!) obsessed with this toy so we had to include it. Obsessed y'all.

I also snagged these plastic safety cones and open frisbees from the dollar store hoping to create a fun game of  "ring toss" but no one really played it (maybe if it were outdoors they would have). Oh well.

Step 3- Add cake

Because, what is a party without cake? This is my favorite theme ever to make a cake because its supposed to look bumpy, messy and all dug up! Perfect for someone who can't manage to put together a cake without breaking it (ahem.. me.) Just make a cake, put it together (or don't... like my giant clumps that were mostly frosting), frost in brown chocolate and cover with crushed oreos.

Using more toys as props, set up a simple construction scene. (I recommend buying a cheap set from the dollar tree for this because these toys will get messy. We still kept ours after cleaning them off but just incase you can't get it all clean it's not worth big bucks)


Add a few of these adorable safety cone candles and remove crushed oreo in the shape of your child's age and that's it!

Use leftover crushed oreo to create "mounds of dirt" or to put in the buckets of the toys vehicles.



My son is more of an ice-cream guy than cake but he had a BLAST playing in it after everyone else had their slice.

Okay, and a little before everyone had a slice...

Okay, okay... it was pretty hard to resits playing in all the food with all these great toys around!

Did you see his shirt?

Since we own our own small business that makes shirts, we of course always make our kids their own birthday shirts. Although we do always seem to be making it the day before/day of the party #procrastination #allotherordersfirst  However, if you have a Silhouette or a Cricut you can easily make your own shirts too!

He loves his "Diggin' Being Three" shirt and always tells people it says that when we wears it! (We actually didn't heat press the back design and removed it after the party so he can wear it year round!)


I would love if you followed my small business on facebook or instagram, we have a lot of fun on there & would love to have you!




Last but not least: the pinata! 

This was my favorite element from the party and although the most time consuming, I'm so glad we had it. This was the first time I've ever made my own pinata (Pinterest is full of tutorials) and I think it went pretty well.  I made a round(ish) ball shape, painted it black and hung it from a string on the wall.

I used yellow poster boards and black cardstock and hand drew (Yes, I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm not generally much of an artist) a large crane.  For the brick backdrop I used the thicker foam board and painted it to look like brick. I did this because I didn't want paint from the pinata to come off on the wall. Turns out the 3M I used to hang it up tore the paint off the wall anyways so it probably didn't matter! Oops.

[Very] last minute I thought to print off a photo of my son and add him as the 'driver'. That's why he has lines on his face- because I have a crappy printer. Be better than be, print this ahead of time!

My son was the only one who used the pinata (it was a family only party and no other kids were there when we did it) but he still got to smash something into the wall *without getting in trouble!* and got lots of little treats. I got a really cool decor piece for the party. Win-Win.


What's your favorite element?

I hope you feel inspired to create a simple but well put together party for your Construction themed birthday. At the time my favorite was the pinata but seeing how tickled my son is about the shirt 6 months later, I'm pretty glad we made that too.