When Samantha turned five, she had an Alice-inspired birthday party with four or five other little friends. Because the party was small, I was able to send these cups and saucers home as favors for the guests. I bought plain cups and saucers for about $3 per set and decorated them with porcelain markers that I found at Michael’s.
I’d been wanting to do something like this ever since I clipped an article from House Beautiful about 10 years ago about an artist who decorated small plates for dinner parties with markers and nail polish.
Edwina Sandys Plate from House Beautiful February 2000
I wonder if she is still making these today and if she has discovered porcelain pens. They would certainly make her art more permanent – washable too. The ink is heat set on the painted pieces in the oven. I’m not sure if it’s OK to eat off these surfaces, but they are certainly great for the outside of a cup or the rim of a plate.
This year the kids took home cat snow globes that they helped make. It was a bit of work on my part as I had to make bases from Sculpey, clean the jars and use epoxy to attach the cats (from a local cake decorating shop) to the bases and the bases to the jar lids. We poured the water for the kids and they added their own glitter and glycerin. I’d never made globes in bulk before and I can’t say I did my best with the gluing and everything, but at least I got the snow globe as party favor idea out of my system! The kids really did like them though. You’ll find my snow globe making instructions here.
My Material Life 