Elena’s birthday party sewing demo for her friends went swimmingly. She did a really great job sewing a tote bag, and all the girls seemed duly impressed. In addition to the sewing demo, we made a flip-the-button-into-the-cup game that I found in an old (winter 2004) Martha Stewart Kids Magazine — sorry, couldn’t find it in her archives online (why, oh why did that magazine have to fold?). I also printed out these Martha Stewart bingo cards and the girls used colorful translucent buttons as placeholders.

The famous tote bags, filled with the button jewelry craft, stickers and some candy:

Oh, and the button birthday cake? Really lame, especially after nailing Rosa’s Hello Kitty cake. I tried several different things and finally gave up; I think I doomed it from the beginning when I accidentally colored all of the frosting, rather than leaving some white, to make the “thread.” But 8-year-olds don’t care. We had a good time.