The Winter Palace. A sleepover party for 11-year old girls.

I made invitations out of white transparent vellum cards.  I stamped them with white, silver and blue snowflakes of different sizes. Inside, the text told of how in days gone by, European nobility would escape the cold gray boredom of winter by retreating to their winter palaces in the country, where they entertained themselves with delicate craftwork, games, performances, visiting guests and of course, parties. 

Guests were invited to join us at our modern day winter palace for a "glittering evening of fun." They were asked to wear winter white, silver, or pale blue, and come prepared with a story, song, poem, dance or other entertainment for the amusement of the other winter palace guests.

The rooms were decorated with large hanging silver and white snowflakes and blue, silver and iridescent glitter balls which I made of Styrofoam. The windows and doorways were festooned with yards of snowy white tulle (very inexpensive) and draped with iridescent beads (from my Christmas tree.)

For activities, the girls made their own lip glosses from scratch (I bought small empty pots from a cosmetics supply store), made crystal bracelets, and then did their performance -- the girls came up with very creative entries ranged from a duet doing the "Dr. Evil" rap from Austin Powers to a fairy tale composed especially for the occasion to the Bluebird variation from the ballet "Sleeping Beauty." My younger daughter didn't want to perform so we made her the mistress of ceremonies.  

For the birthday cake, I made a white chocolate cake with dark chocolate leaves and homemade peppermint ice cream. 

In the morning, there was time for one more game -- "blind makeover" where one girl is blindfolded, and puts makeup on another while everyone watches. (No pointy brushes that could hurt the eyes were supplied. They all thought this was hysterically funny.

The party favors were the lip gloss and the crystal bracelets the girls had made.  Each girl had received her own supply of beads in a plastic craft organizer, which she got to keep.  I also put in a pot of blue or silver glitter gel, and put a label on the organizer with each girl's name and a snowflake stamped on. 

I love giving parties for my girls, and this one was one of my daughter (and her friends') all time favorites!