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Dora the Explorer -3yr- Felt & Vellum Invites

September 2005

Vicki in Knoxville, TN USA

Special Mention

For my daughter's 3rd birthday, we had a Dora the Explorer birthday party at our home.  It was the best party yet! 

I made the invitations, and I hope you can get the idea without seeing it!  I started out with a letter size piece of felt in the color "antique white."  It really is just a cream color.  I laid it horizontally.  In the upper left-hand corner, there was a piece of vellum in the shape of a square.  On the vellum at the top center was a picture of Dora and Boots holding hands walking.  I found this picture of them from free clipart on the internet.  Underneath this picture, I typed on the computer:  Dora & Boots are so excited!  They're going to a party, and you're invited!  Follow the map to find your way to Caroline's 3rd birthday! 

I used four tiny flower stickers to adhere the vellum to the felt (one on each of the four corners), because hot glue and even special glue for vellum showed through the vellum, and it did not look neat.  Underneath the piece of vellum, I made Balloon Bridge.  The bridge was a rectangular piece of dark brown felt.  On it I glued tiny gold rectangular-shaped beads to represent the wooden slats on the bridge.  The bridge was hot glued on horizontally.  I bought a bag of multi-colored small pom-pom balls (the little fuzzy balls) and glued three of the balls about 3 inches above the bridge.  I bought super skinny polka dot ribbon and curled them with my scissors, then hot glued the ribbon underneath each balloon, so there were balloons with the "strings" hanging down. 

Underneath the brige, I printed out the words "Cupcake Mountain" on vellum and centered it underneath the bridge.  In the center of the card, there was Cupcake Mountain.  Using the same brown felt I used for the bridge, I cut out a triangular shape for the mountain.  I used a lighter brown felt to cut out the cupcake papers or holders, and I used hot pink felt for the cupcake frosting.  I glued the same gold beads I used on the bridge on the cupcakes to give it the effect of sprinkles and some added dimension.  The words "Cupcake Mountain" were typed onto vellum and centered underneath the mountain.  In the upper right-hand corner of the page, there was Caroline's House.  I made it to look just like our house. 

I cut out a light gray piece of felt in the shape of a square, cut out a black roof, cut out 2 smaller white squares of felt for the windows, a dark gray felt door, and used the same beads I used earlier for the door knob.  Skinny stripes of black felt were used in a cross shape on top of the windows to make them look like real windows.  Underneath the house typed on vellum were the words "Caroline's House."  In the lower right-hand corner of the invitation on vellum I typed the day, date, time, RSVP date, and our phone number and name.  These took a lot of time due to all of the cutting out everything by hand, but it was so worth it to see the end result.  The final touch was how I mailed the invitation. 

After the invitations were completely dry, I rolled them up in the shape of the Map, cut out felt eyebrows, glued the wiggly eyes on that you find in craft stores, added a red felt mouth outlined in black, and mailed them in clear plastic shipping tubes.  Each recipient could see the "Map" through the tube!  This was the cutest part of the invitation.  All of the parents and the kids loved the invitation!!  Anyone who would like the source of the plastic tubes (as they are very hard to find), please e-mail me.  We had hot pink, yellow, and orange balloons everywhere! 

We had a dozen of them on the mailbox with a big silver number 3 in them.  In the dining room where we had the food, we had Dora tablecloths, Dora centerpieces, Dora cups, plates, napkins, and ceiling decorations that hung down that had all the different characters on the show.  All of that stuff was bought at Party City.  We had 2 balloons bouquets in each corner of the dining room.  We had streamers everywhere with the same color scheme.  We had a gift table set up as you walked in with a Dora tablecloth, my daughter's Dora doll sitting on one end of the table and another paper centerpiece of Dora found at Party City on the other end.  I bought a Spanish CD that played in the background the whole time. 

For the food, we had a taco bar where you could make your own taco.  For the kids, I had cheese quesadillas and chicken quesadillas.  There were chips and salsa, a fruit tray, cheese tray, and veggie tray. 

The birthday cake was a picture of Dora and Boots, made by a very talented local baker. 

For activities, we did them outside because the weather was so nice.  We had a table set up where you could make your own maracca.  This table was manned by my 19 year old niece.  I bought small clear plastic cups and stickers.  The kids sat down and put stickers all over the 2 cups.  In one cup they added either rice, white beans, brown beans, or a little of all three.  Then they picked out the tape they wanted to use.  I bought the colored plastic tape (the kind you would use on repairs), and she cut the tape and helped them tape the cups together.  Instant maracca! 

They had fun making them, playing with them, and taking them home!  Another area was for face painting and tatoos.  A friend of mine painted any Dora character they wanted and/or placed a Dora temporary tatoo on their arms.  They loved it!  For party favors, I found a gift bag in the exact shade of purple as the backpack.  I cut out eyebrows from felt, glued on wiggly eyes, cut out the red mouth outlined in black, and it looked exactly like Backpack!  Inside, I put a Dora coloring book and crayons, Dora fruit snacks, Dora stickers, Dora party horns, Dora slinkeys, Dora telescopes, etc.  Everything Dora!  We had such a great time, and the party was a huge success.

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