For once, today’s blog post isn’t about sewing. It’s more about an event where you definitely don’t get around to sewing at all: the high-stakes operation of a child’s birthday party! (Or at least the necessary preparations for it.)

What is a child’s birthday party topic doing on our blog? Well, we have children—three of them—and, added together, they have birthdays three times a year.
Jinny & Joe exists and lives through our children. All of our patterns and instructions were initially created for one of our three mini-monsters.
If you’ve landed on this blog, you probably have kids too, or at least need to host a mermaid party.

So, on to the mermaid birthday project

The older our oldest gets, the more specific her ideas are about what her birthday party—or rather, the theme of the party—should look like. So, I found myself in the position of having to host a mermaid birthday party. Naturally, everything had to be perfectly on-theme. With my husband’s words ringing in my ears—“Why do you always make such a fuss, just go buy something…”—I first went in search of suitable invitation cards. I might have found one or two nice cards, but… Aside from the fact that at those prices for nice cards, I could think of a thousand other things I’d rather buy, our little mermaid’s indignant declaration, “They don't even look like me!”, was ultimately what pushed me to sit down at the computer myself. (I had hidden the buggy-eyed glitter dolls from both my daughter and my husband; I couldn’t reconcile them with my own taste.) It’s also true that I enjoy illustrating and doing these sorts of things myself. Plus, the beaming eyes of my children compensate me for the all-nighters (I buy eye cream with the money I saved). So, the invitations were approved, written, and distributed. Of course, I couldn't turn down our oldest’s request for place cards and table decorations featuring mermaids with the characteristics of her friends either…

So, on my computer, there were now mermaids of all nations with different hairstyles, which might not be used again until years later when our youngest would ask for a mermaid party. That would truly be a waste!

From now on, you can find a download for a mermaid party set in our shop. I’ve prepared the illustrations so that there should be a matching mermaid for every birthday child. One could say I went a bit overboard, but our society is beautifully diverse, and so there are 24 different mermaids.

How it’s done

Now for a few tips and notes on the implementation.
After you have downloaded the file to your computer and chosen the appropriate mermaid, do the following:
The front and the inside of the card are each twice on one sheet, so you print two cards at once. When printing, select the desired pages and choose “double-sided printing” with “binding on the short edge” (these settings may vary depending on the printer manufacturer). You should definitely do a test print. For a beautiful result, choose the highest print quality. If your printer cannot print double-sided, print only one side first and then put the paper back into the printer the other way around (be sure to test this so nothing ends up upside down later). You now have two invitation cards on one sheet and just need to cut them in the middle and then fold them into a card. The cards fit into regular envelopes (C6); whether you choose a colored version or envelopes made of kraft paper is a matter of taste.

I used some firmer, slightly yellowish paper; it looks nice and high-quality. See the following link:

• Colored printer paper, 120 g/m², DIN-A4, 250 sheets

Here is the link to the envelopes:

• Kraft paper envelopes, C6, 100 pieces, 110 g/m²

The individual mermaids and the place cards are printed on the same paper and cut out accordingly.

You can hang the cut-out mermaids on the party favor bags for decoration; they also look great on the birthday table when attached to straws with washi tape! See the following link:

• Biodegradable drinking straws, 300 pieces

Click here for the Mermaid Party Set Download

Just as a side note, a few more tips and ideas for further decoration and helpers for the upcoming party:

• Silicone molds for cake decoration
• Glitter slap bracelets for the goody bags
• Kraft paper bags
• Turquoise paper bags