**EDITED to add: Several of you have asked for a tutorial for the circus sign. I really wish I had taken pictures. Thanks so much for the nice comments! Unfortunately, my husband stuck it in with some items for his mother's estate sale and someone took it home for $7. It broke my heart. I'll do my best to explain but most of the work on the sign was handled by my husband, dad, and stepdad. It's good to have family in town for parties!! As far as I remember they lined the letters (papier mache purchased at JoAnn's) up on the piece of wood where we wanted them to go and traced around them. They removed the letters and drilled holes through the piece of wood inside the lines, spacing the holes evenly. They laid the letters back down inside the lines and drilled from the bottom of the board up through the holes they had already made and into the letters. Of course, the hole into the board and into the backside of the letter can be as big as you need it to be to get the lights in. When they drilled through into the top of the letter, they carefully punched a small hole in the top part of the letter just to mark it. They then used a smaller drill bit and made the hole look nicer from the top side of the letter being careful to make it just big enough for the tip of the light to poke through. You want it fairly small/tight as this is what holds it in place. You don't insert any Christmas lights at this point as you still need to paint everything. After this, they painted the board and the letters, and we used hot glue to attach the letters to the wood, stuck the strands of lights in through the larger holes and individual lights in the smaller holes, and used duct tape to attach the Christmas lights to the back of the board for support.
Was that totally confusing? I hope it helped. Let me know if you have any further questions and I'll do my best to answer them! I can bring my husband in to consult. Haha!
26 comments:
We had a great time! Incredible job as always :)
As always had a wonderful time at the party. Everything was wonderful wish I had a piece of that cake today. Happy Birthday my babies. Love Nana and Poppy
These pictures are so amazing! I can see how much work you put in to making the party special... all the little details are so amazing... I am loving all the bright colors!
Hi there, I read about you on Little Lovely and had to 'call in' to read more. What a fantastic party that must have been! Your photos are so crisp. Would you mind telling me which camera you use? Many thanks and I look forward to reading more of you blog.
Hi Many A Mickle,
I have a Canon 5D that I'm still learning to use. Thank you so much for your kind words.
Sandy
Oh. My. Goodness. I have been wanting to do a circus theme for so long. This is by far the best execution of the theme I have ever seen online. I LOVE your oldest daughter's outfit. Perfect!
Stunning.
I saw this over on the Birthday Girl blog. Simply amazing! I love this style of circus theme. You have pulled it off so well. I have alwasy wanted a carnival party myself...this is exactly the style I would do! :)
thanks for sharing
Any change you can tell me how you made your CIRCUS sign?? I have to have one for my little guy's Circus party in May!
I'd be happy to share how I made the sign. It's basically a piece of wood from Home Depot, painted, and with paper mache letters added. I bought the letters at JoAnns. We placed the letters on the wood and traced them. We then removed the letters and drilled holes into the wood. We placed the letters back on and added Christmas lights from the back. The holes in the wood and in the backside of the letters were larger than those in the front as the lights needed to go all the way through the wood and into the letter but only the tip of the light showed through the letter. We used hot glue to adhere the letters to the wood and duct tape to hold the lights in place. I wish you were closer as you would be more than welcome to use ours!! Hope you have a great party!
Hi!
I found your blog through googling vintage circus and I was directed to the creative hostess blog. I'm blown away by your children's outfits and creativity!! And your photos are amazing!
I was wondering if you wouldn't mind telling me where you got the popcorn containers and the toys. My son's turning one in June and we're doing a vintage circus theme as well :).
-- Corinne
hey! totally inspired by you! GODO JOB :)
Hi Rinne,
The popcorn containers were from the $1 bin at Target. I just picked up a few every time we went. I actually ended up with way too many because I kept sticking them away in the craft cabinet for months and forgetting about them ! LOL! The toys used as prizes/gifts were from Party America/Party City. They had a large stand with 5 objects for $1. Hope this helps! Have a great party!
Hi Sandy! I found this CUTE party while searching for vintage circus ideas and I love it!! You did a great job! I was wondering where you found the little baby elephant with the birthday hat that is on top of the smash cake? I would like to have one like it for my son's 1st birthday!
Thank you!!
Sommer
Hi SommieWig,
Thanks so much! The baby elephant came from Michael's. They have a selection of heavy and hard plastic animals in bins in the back near the art supplies. I had the lady that created our cake make a little polkadot fondant hat for him. Have a great party!
Best,
Sandy
WOW! You took the vintage circus theme to a whole new level!! Amazing work:)Your circus sign is spectacular, thanks for posting your wonderful ideas!
M.green
What a lovely party. I so love the pictures! I can tell that everyone had a fantastic time. That gave me an idea. It would be fun to do a circus themed party complete with well known Sonoma canopy tents, clowns and magicians. I could also invite my friends and families from San Diego. Tent rental providers are definitely in demand on these kind of events.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful family photos! More power to your blog!
Hey Sandy! Beautiful Party!! Thank you for posting the instructions on your sign - what a great way to use those letters. One question about that, though - did you use a drill on the paper mache'? Or how did you poke the holes in the paper mache' letters?
Wow! Thanks for sharing your pics. You've given me so many ideas for my son's 1st birthday, also circus themed.
I love love love your whole look for the circus party. You are also a amazing photographer. I am throwing my daughter Londyn and circus 1 St bday and am using you as a inspiration. I'm wondering what you did for invitations. Also I can't find the top hat anywhere, I also work for a hat company believe it or not it's adults not kids. If you can help me out I would greatly appreciate. Thanks
Hello, I wantd to know did you have a tutorial for the Circus Sign, i would like to do something like that for my son's birthda, and I love....!!!!!! the pictures
AMAZING! And please add me to the list of those who want a tutorial on your lighted circus sign! Or let me buy it from you...
Very good idea! It's unbelievably wonderful! I like biscornus myself, but the stitching together of that would put me off! Thanks for posting this.
Hello! What an adorable party you had!! I originally saw pictures from your party here http://www.thesweetestoccasion.com/2010/02/circus-birthday-party/ and was wondering where you got the white and red circus tent thing hanging from the ceiling?
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