chinese birthday party

this chinese birthday party was originally hosted by autumn over at design dump! autumn submitted this celebration into my party contest a while ago...and i am finally featuring it! at the beginning of each month i am going to start a 'week of winners' since i have SO many excellent parties that have been submitted!
thanks again autumn for submitting this awesome party {ADORABLE}! congrats on winning!

so to start off december's 'week of winners', here's autumns chinese party as described by her.....i'm a firm believer in setting the theme and color scheme for a party with great invitations.
and it always helps if other elements of the party
reinforce the color scheme.
here are the invitations i made for my daughters
8th birthday party:
pretty time consuming,yes,
but i love the way they turned out.
i printed the invite on the dotted fuchsia paper, stamped and embossed the pagoda and edge, and layered it with black paper. i made the black sleeves as well, and applied the chartreuse paper, layered the brocade fabric on top, and wrapped some raffia (spray painted gold), and topped it with a gold chinese coin. all the paper was purchased at a local scrapbook paper store, the fabric at joann's, and the coins at oriental trading company.i had the raffia and gold spray paint on hand.
a peek at the chinese take out box pinata, (a collaborative effort...devised by me, made by my crafty sister-in-law nicole, and "accessorized" by my husband ) made from a template downloaded from the internet and
transferred onto white poster board.
the wire "holder" is made from a hanger
(you are a genius, dear hubby)...
lucky me, i even found some fuchsia roses.

strawberries with flags...

yes, those are indeed cakeballs...

i have to admit. i put the celery out because i felt obligated to have at least one vegetable on the table.(plus, it went with my color scheme)
but i'll be darned if every piece wasn't gone by the end of the party!
shocker...

fortune cookies dipped in candy melts with sprinkles...

waters with printed labels...

and here's the gift bags we gave out:each bag contained a fan, some "chopstick" pencils (in a sleeve i made),
a kaleidoscope, a chinese yo-yo, and some junior mints.

the paper lanterns were purchased online at luna bazaar, except for a few, which were purchased at target and spray painted gold. i made the black pom-poms from tissue paper...

i found the plates at walmart. walmart has really stepped up their game in the last few years.
no wonder they are taking over the universe.

yummy egg rolls...
the cake topper:
i used the online chinese translator again for this.
it's supposed to say "happy birthday" in chinese.
(again, hoping it doesn't REALLY
say something foul or creepy)
i printed it out, "smashed" the characters together (so they would touch) copied it onto cardboard and cut it out with an x-acto knife. then i spray painted it gold and used embossing powder for the final glittery touch...
these were the hit of the party!
rice krispy sushi.
made from rice krispy treats, colored licorice and fruit roll-ups.
the kids went nuts over these...