Creativebug It was a Sunday the middle of February, past the hubbub of the holidays, and my kindergartener wanted to celebrate something, anything. “It’s the cats’ birthdays RIGHT NOW” she insisted, despite it being nowhere close to their actual birthday, and it was clear arguing wasn’t going to help. Always up for an excuse to craft and distract a kiddo simultaneously, we pulled together a tiny little pet-themed “party” and here’s how you can too!
First we invited a single guest, our beloved next-door neighbor Judy. Though she was out of the house for the day, confirmed via text, we insisted that we would wait for her. The invitation was made using sketchbook paper and magic markers and I highly suggest hand-delivery whenever possible. We live on a well-traveled so we taped it to her front door instead of slipping it through the mail slot so that everyone walking by could see how much we treasure Judy.
You likely already have many photos of your pets but what kid doesn’t like to run off with a parent’s phone, especially with a job to do? My daughter was tasked with taking some pet portraits and took nearly 200. It kept her busy for an entire four minutes, which any parent knows is better than zero minutes. None of these photos were particularly useable for my garland but it did give me the chance to find the birthday candles in one of the six junk drawers in our house.
You’ll want to print out your favorite 8-10 photos of your cats. We celebrated both our cats Wally and Brian Wilson so we did printed four of each. If you have an endless supply of toner you can just go ahead and print the photo and then cut out the pet head, but I took out the background of the photo using the Photoroom App. Use your preferred photo editing tool of your choice – Canva works nicely for this, or you can tightly crop a photo to obscure as much of the background as possible. Cut out the heads, then cut a triangle of construction paper to fit each image and decorate with markers. I lay a piece of butcher twine across the back – yarn would work just fine – and a piece of washi tape across the entirety of the image. Add little vertical pieces of tape for security.
Wall Walls and Bri Bri normally split a can of wet food so for their celebration we gave them each their own can, plus a little dollop of whipped cream (yes dairy is NOT good for cats but these goofballs are obsessed with licking it off my daughter’s abandoned waffles and it felt worth the risk!). I had to crop out their faces because they did look a little spooked in the photo I had but I swear they enjoyed it!
If you were planning ahead of time instead of desperately trying to entertain a wild child I’d suggest a lovely custom gift. I always go for the cheapie mice they sell out of a tub next to the register at the pet store near me (shout-out to Dogs and Cats Rule!) but for a personalized – and a little offbeat – gift, consider knitting your pet up a tiny kitty or puppy using their own fur in the Fancy Tiger Crafts-led Knitted Puppy and Kitty class on Creativebug.
If I had a pup instead of kitties, I’d have happily stitched up this darling little sweater made by knitwear designer and OG Knitting Blogger Wendy Bernard in her Knit a Custom Fit Dog Sweater class. While my daughter is desperate to put the cats in clothes, they have yet to cooperate and I am in no rush to force their participation.
Two classes I’ve long admired that would serve as beautiful tributes to a special fur baby are Doodle and Paint an Animal Portrait by Jennifer Mercede and Christine Aria Hostetler’s precious Painting Watercolor Pet Portraits.
Once Judy arrived home, our party began. She lovingly wrapped two tiny cat toys that they “opened” with partial enthusiasm but that they still play with today. Though the entire party consisted of the 60 seconds it took to sing “Happy Birthday” and the five seconds to unwrap the gift, it remains a treasured memory in our household. The preparation was most of the fun and it stood as a really beautiful reminder that even the smallest (and sometimes entirely invented) things are worth celebrating.