The Green Wife

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Owl Party Favors: hair clip and finger puppet tutorial

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Elliott’s third birthday is quickly approaching and for her party, she has requested an owl theme.  After scouring the internet and local party supply stores, I came up empty handed.  It seems that owls just haven’t made it into the world of mass-produces party goods.  What does that mean for this mom?  It means I’ve got to get my booty in gear and rack every crafty brain cell I have to pull this party off in style!

Party favors were my immediate concern because I knew there would be a good number of them to make.  Time to get busy!  I didn’t want to spend a fortune, so I went through my mental inventory of craft supplies I already have on hand and came up with felt.  I can do felt!  Since we will have both boys and girls attending her party, I wanted to do something for each gender.  So…the girls will be getting owl hair clips and the boys will be getting owl finger puppets!  Sounds great, but….where to begin??  I couldn’t find a template online, so with the guidance of my friend The Fabric Floozie, I created my own and will share it with you guys along with the step-by-step process of putting these owls together. (For more owl party ideas, look here.)

First, download and print the template here.

Second, gather your supplies:

  • Felt
  • Scissors
  • Hot glue or fabric glue
  • Needle
  • Embroidery thread
  • Alligator hair clip
  • 3/8″ ribbon

Then, cut your owl pieces out of felt in your desired colors.  I’m doing quite a few, so I put all my pieces in little piles.

I began by tacking each of the pieces onto the body with a dab of glue.  I used just a dab of hot glue, but any fabric-friendly glue will do the trick.  I did this because I’m fumble-fingers and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hold the tiny pieces in place long enough to stitch them on.

First, the wings.

Then the eye piece.

The little beak…

And some eyeballs.

The owls looked a bit untidy after I pieced them together, so I used some very pointy, very sharp scissors to trim and neaten up the edges.

Once you get your little guy just how you want it, get your embroidery thread and split it into 2 3-strand sections.

Start stitching around the edges of the wings and eye piece.

When you’re done sewing, your little owl should look something like this:

For the girl guests,  I lined an alligator clip with coordinating ribbon and attached the owl with hot glue.  For more details on this, check out my trusty hair clip tutorial.

I fixed the owl lengthwise rather and across the clip so that no matter which side a little girl’s hair is parted on, the owl will be upright.

I’d wear it. 😉

Now, obviously the boys aren’t going to be into hair clips, so I took the two felt finger puppet pieces (see template) and stitched them together.  Then I attached a prepared owl with….you guessed it!  Hot glue.

I think he needs some little orange feet.  When I go to the store next, I’ll grab some orange embroidery floss and stitch some on.

Note:  Please use caution in giving this to small children as they could potentially become a choking hazard.  Be safe, be fun!

GIVEAWAY!  I made an extra hair clip and an extra finger puppet and I want to give them as a set to one of my readers.

To enter:  Leave a comment (only one, please!) telling me what themes you’ve done for children’s parties.  I love hearing how creative moms can be!  Enter by 5pm tomorrow (Saturday, January 2, 2010) to be eligible to win!

The winner is comment #11.  Congratulations, Amy!  Please contact me within 7 days to claim your prize.


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Comments

  1. I love those! My grandmother also LOVED owls and I have a few of her little keepsakes from her house.

    As far as themes, we’ve only had one birthday party so far. We did a fall/leaves theme with lots of browns, reds, and oranges. I’m going to try to stay away from characters forever if I possibly can!

    Reply

  2. Cute-ness!! I really haven’t done any themes yet (just buy whatever’s on sale hehe) – planning on a pirate themed party & a Hannah Montana party this year. 😀

    Reply

  3. Right now I am planning a party for my Lucy, turning 6. She and I love to watch (hiding my face) Toddlers and Tiaras, and she wanted to throw a pageant… so we are! We’ll do some kind of crafts (sashes, maybe?) and nails, hair, make-up… and then end with a pageant where everyone wins a title! YAY!!!

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  4. We did a fairy party for Audrey’s fifth. Mother Nature (my mother dressed in a gown and with lots of sparkly make-up and a floral garland around her head) greeted the girls with fairy wings and flower headbands and the boys with tunics and hats made of felt. Children rotated from station to station. I think we had a magic potion station, a fairy/elf food station (cupcake decorating), face painting station, and a magic wand craft station. Also had a golden coin hunt. Took a lot of teamwork among my family members to pull this one off, as did the tea party we did for Audrey’s 7th. We used my great grandmother’s china and served tea, fruit, finger pb&j sandwiches, and cake. Found lots of old hats and costume jewlrey at antique shop and theater storage attic. Whew. I’m worn out just thinking about them. My poor second child hasn’t gotten one of these great theme parties. Better work on that for September!

    Reply

  5. Well, my little one is too small to request a theme yet. But for her first I did pink elephants on parade. I really want to do a farm theme for her second.

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  7. I did a farm animal baby shower. But we couldn’t do much to the venue, and I didn’t want to spend alot, so I broke out my set of 100 animal cookie cutters (a great deal for $10 at Hobby Lobby) and made about 12 different animals, over a hundred in all. They all got pink frosting (since it was a girl) and were monogrammed with a white “H” (for the last name of the family). I put each one in a plastic bag and tied it with a pink “baby girl” twist tie that I picked up at the craft store for a couple of dollars a package. We put them all over the room, in baskets on every table and laid some out for decoration on the treat table. Then everyone took some home as a favor. It was a big hit.

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  8. The party I’m most proud of is my son’s third birthday. His birthday is in September, but he insisted on a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer party. Obviously, Party City was not going to be able to help me. I knew I was on my own on this one.
    We gave the kids antler headbands and red sponge clown noses to wear and the piece de resistance was a piñata my husband and I stayed up all night making of Bumble the abominable snow man. It was AWESOME!

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  9. Sooo cute! <3 My grandmother collected owls, so they're very sentimental to me! <3

    We've had some fun party themes for Cassidy with her interesting obsessions. 😉
    1) Ducks 2) Dory (from Nemo ;)) 3) Princess Dora (ie, fairytale Dora ;)) 4) "Blue" 5) New York! 6) Planets & 7) Dinosaurs (in pink, purple & turquoise! ;))!

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  10. So cute! Love them! I have only done three birthday parties so far. The ideas are endless, but the money is not always there. My son’s 1st birthday we did a John Deere theme….apple cider, popcorn balls, a dirt cake in a dump truck! For his second I didn’t have much time to really do alot, I just had a new baby girl, but we did a Sesame Street theme…I got those giant helium balloons, Big Bird and Elmo…so cute! And for my daughter’s 1st birthday and my son’s 3rd birthday, we did a together birthday, it was a farm theme at a local petting zoo! Lots of fun because they had so many activities to do! I love all your ideas…keep crafting:)

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  13. What a hoot! Super cute!=)

    For her first we did a Hawaiian Luau. The older kids enjoyed swimming. For her second we did a strawberry shortcake. For her third we want to do an alice in wonderland/tea party but I’m not sure yet. She hasn’t asked for anything in particular but she’s obsessed with Dora, soooo who knows just yet!

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  14. Yay! I’m so glad you liked my owl clippie idea. They turned out great. So precious! Mac would absolutely love the “Whooo Whooo”.

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    • Thanks for helping me brainstorm the other night! I wasn’t sure that I could make them turn out just how I wanted, but I’m in love now! 🙂

      Reply

  15. adorable! We’ve done a caterpillar, elmo, and puppy dog theme so far. Didn’t have to make any cute favors though since he won’t have a friends birthday until he’s 4!

    Reply

  19. Love this!! My youngest is turning 1 on the 30th, and an owl theme is what I’ve been wanting to do. His lovie is a hoot owl so I thought it would be appropriate. For my 3 year old we’ve done a sock monkey theme, and then this year we did a Dukes of Hazard theme. We live in SC and my husband loves “the Duke Boys”. I’m going to do my best to make these clips and puppets. Thanks

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  20. We have done a pirate party where the guest fallowed a treasure map to a sand box filled with hidden treasure

    Another fun one was a faux sleep over my dd was to young for a real sleep ouver so we did everything you would de at a sleep over, decorated pillow cases, made pizzas, watched a movie, danced areound in our PJ’s, painted toe nails and then at 8 we drove the kidos home. TONS OF FUN!

    A hero part birthday where everyone dressed up like their favorite super hero. WE had a water gun fight and had hero sandwiches.

    We had a summer time un birthday party b/c summer can get boring and all the guests brought a present that they trades with another guest and we had each guest bring an ice cream topping and made huge sundays and had a blast

    We had an olympic party where the kids ” Compeated” in kid olympic events amazingly every one got a gold medal!!

    Once we did a mini carnaval and that was fun. Nothing expencing a just small carnival games with prized from oriental tarder pop corn and fwe had funnal cakes instead of a birthday cake.

    Reply

  22. Crafting with felt for favors (and even birthday party hats) is a great way to go green! Your owl pencil top favor is a real HOOT. Guess WHOOOOOOOO is going to be featuring them on their Web site, soon?

    Your twitter friend,
    Christine
    cutepartyideas

    Reply

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