Minnie Mouse 1st Birthday

Our youngest niece, Lexie, is one today!  Happy birthday, baby girl!

Her Mommy and Daddy had her party last Saturday and Aunt Jen and Aunt Dee made her invitations, birthday banner, birthday card, cake and cupcakes.  And Aunt Dee outdid herself!  The cake was amazing and it was only her FOURTH multi-tiered, fondant-covered cake!

The invitation was a Minnie Mouse head that I cut out on the Cricut using the Mickey Font cartridge.  I typeset the invitation and photo panels in Microsoft Publisher and printed them on my trusty HP Printer.  They were laid out in Publisher to then run thru the Cricut to cut the circles to fit on the Minnie head.  The ribbon is a sheer baby pink with white polka dots we picked up at our local Michael's.

The banner features several Cricut cartridges -- George and Basic Shapes for the scalloped circle (a cut file I downloaded from Okieladybug's blog - Thanks, Okie!), Mickey Font for the letters, and Mickey and Friends for the Minnie Mouse cuts.  After I glued everything down, we took it down to the local print/copy shop and had it laminated (rain was in the forecast).  Then Dee and I punched and eyeleted each side and tied the banner together with a narrow black satin ribbon.

The cake and cupcakes were fabulous!  The cake is 3 tiers -- white cake on the bottom and top layers and chocolate in the middle layer, all iced and filled with buttercream and then covered with fondant.  The bottom  layer is covered with an unflavored white marshmallow fondant, the middle layer is a pale pink "Tutti-Frutti" flavored fondant and the Minnie head is covered with an unflavored black fondant.  Dee created the Minnie head by baking it in half of a Wilton ball pan.  The Minnie heads, bows, and polka dots are all cut from fondant and attached with buttercrem.  The black and white polka-dotted ribbon was purchased from Michael's and spot-tacked to the layers with buttercream icing.

The Cricut was used on this cake, too!  Minnie's ears are cut from fun foam (non-edible),  the wires with the Minnies, and the banner on the cake base were all cut from either the Mickey Font or Mickey and Friends cartridges.  I created the banner in Design Studio and embellished it with a white gel pen.  The cupcake picks are also cut using the Cricut and hot-glued to toothpicks.

The birthday card was created using the Michey and Friends and Mickey Font cartridges as well.  The Design Studio was instrumental in creatring this card.  I "welded" together two of the tickets and then welded the words "Oh My!".  I backed the words with a decorative paper and embellished it with a black Zig writer.  The  inside wording was cut from the same decorative paper.  The finished card measured 5 1/2" wide by 8 1/2" tall.

And Lexie loved it all!  She giggled and pointed at all of the Minie Mouses and she devoured the smash cake her Great-Grandma Shirley made her as well as some of Mommy's cake and a cupcake that Aunt Dee fed her.  The party was wonderful and windy.  And Dee and I had so much fun making a special little girl's day a little more special.