My sister Megan’s birthday was yesterday!  She chose to have a woodland themed party with hedgehogs as the “life of the party.” (Hee-hee!)  I thought I’d go through the decorations for the party and how we made a few of them.  (Megan didn’t especially want to do all the decorations, so I got to make most of them – hooray!)

The colors of the theme were green and brown.  For the decorations, I hung up twirled green and brown streamers and green balloons.

I also drew and cut out some forest floor type things like toadstools, grasses, and pebbles.  It would have been better to make the toadstools out of red paper, but we didn’t have any. 🙂

Meet Mr. Hedgehog, the gift guy.  I designed him; Megan painted him.  Megan also had the great idea to use him to show the guests where to put gifts.

The table was really fun to decorate.  We got the tablecloth, plates, napkins, and cups at Party City (which was FUN, by the way!).  My mom made the cute cake, I made the hedgehogs, and Megan made the labels for the “Dew Drops” (water) and “Twigs” (pretzel sticks).  I found the ideas for twigs, dew drops (which was originally named “Morning Dew”), and hedgehogs from Pinterest.

Here’s a tutorial on how to make this cute little hedgehog for snacking on. (Poor guy!)

For one hedgehog you will need

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A pear

Whole, black olives

Grapes

Toothpicks

Whole cloves

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First, peel the top of the pear for the hedgehog’s head.

You can try sticking a whole olive on the tip of the pear, but it worked best for me to cut the olive in half.

Stick two whole cloves above the nose for eyes.

Now make him prickly!  Skewer a grape onto a toothpick, then stick the toothpick into the unpeeled part of the pear.  I put the skewered grapes on in rows.  I started with a row next to the head, then progressed all the way back to give him the proper rounded shape.

Such a prickly little guy!

Now for the party favors.  I like to make things out of polymer clay, so I made clay hedgehogs for favors, along with little bags to put them in.  At the end of the party, the guests each got to “adopt a hedgehog.”

So there are a few ideas for a woodland party.  I hope I’ve given you some inspiration!  (And thanks for letting me decorate for you Megan!)

***Allison***