Eric Carle DIY Birthday Party Ideas- Doll Party favors

I found this great Eric Carle printed fabric, perfect for cutting into separate animals and making dolls out of. I purchased it on Etsy.com but you can also find his fabrics on the official Eric Carle website.

When I got the fabric, I cut out each individual animal, leaving about a 1/2" of white border for stitching. Each animal was about 5-7" long and 3-4" high, a great size! I then found some bright colored fabrics for the backs and cut them the same size. I stitched around the animals, following the printed animal design and left open a 2" area for stuffing. 

Then each was turned inside out, stuffed and hand sewn up. I made one for each child and a few for my son to play in his crib with, they are a good size for a toddlers hands. 

The fabric was great for both girls and boys. The animals were cats, frogs, ducks, dogs, bears, horses and birds to name a few. (* Please note the Eric Carle fabrics are for personal use only, and cannot be sold commercially) They were a big hit and fun to give! 

That completed the party favors! A balloon, bear mask, chunky crayons and an Eric Carle animal doll for each little one. To finish the bags, I made tags similar to the crayon tags on my computer, thanking everyone for coming and hand wrote everyones name. 

Next..What's a party without party hats and cupcake toppers!! 

Eric Carle DIY Birthday Party Ideas- Invites

Since it is an Eric Carle party, I must have a panda or polar bear in the invite! So I chose to go with the panda bear.  

I found an image I liked and scanned it in. My invites were 5.5 x 8.5 with a border, so I sized the image to fit. I tried to find a font close enough to the book font, and used a phrase to start the invite.  

I liked the dot pattern in "The Hungry Caterpillar" book, so used that for accents. To make his name, I used the Erc Carle Alphabet print, cut out each letter and made his name. (I will also use that idea for the banner) I then added all our info and printed them out.  
And Whalla! Super cute personalized DIY invites.  

Next Up..What to do for Eric Carle party favors?? 

Eric Carle Birthday DIY Party Ideas - Making Animals

When my son turned one, I knew exactly what party theme to do. He was in love with the books "Polar Bear, Polar Bear what do you hear?" and "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, what do you see?", both written by Eric Carle. I would read them every day and he fell in love with pandas and polar bears. 

Eric Carle is known for his collage style children's books with fun rhymes. The Eric Carle website has his books and lots of other items available for purchase. There is also an Eric Carle museum where you can see his book art.

I decided to try and make everything based on those 2 books.  Unfortunately there weren't a lot of party ideas with those specific themes, but I was able to come up with some easy ideas that I wanted to share in case you have a little boy in love with pandas and polar bears too!

Making Animals

My first idea was to use his books and images to create the animals to place around his party area. I scanned in some images and printed them out. Then laminated them (optional), so they would keep as play things as well. It is such a waste to spend all this time making something and not have it last for another purpose. You could also always pass them on to another friend with a little one. I made 3 large ones so I could stick them on tables, walls, etc.

 (*Eric Carle images are copyrighted, so you can't sell them for commercial purposes)

I also made smaller ones and decided to attach popsicle sticks to them, so I could put them in bowls and such, as well as use them for puppets later!

I just taped the stick to the back.

They would be lots of fun with a little puppet theater!

Next I'll show you how I made masks for the little ones!......