A Neverland Birthday- Piper turns 3!
Parties are my JAM. I love love love throwing parties. It's usually a chaotic mess leading up to them, but the planning and executing and enjoying them is so much fun. I'm also a procrastinator with parties, but I do my best work when I'm in a pinch to finish everything! So I plan it all out in my head and then hustle like a boss to finish everything. This party for Piper's 3rd birthday was my favorite party to date! We love all things Disney and Piper has been in love with Peter pan and Tinkerbell lately, which is good because if she wasn't I'm not sure she could really be my child.. (haha!) I was SO excited about this party that I actually started on everything early! I couldn't even believe it myself, but I started and it made everything much smoother to have more time, who knew?
Most everything for this party was DIY-ed, and with stuff I already had! I really like to make things- decorations, prints, whatever my creative bones feel like making. I try to make a lot of what I use at parties because it’s generally a lot cheaper and I just enjoy making ideas come to life. I throw a lot of parties, so it’s nice to make decorations and then keep them to repurpose and use again for another party. I also just use décor from my house and things I’ve collected over the years. I always walk through my house and look for things I can use. Steven built a great loft space in our garage for storage a while back so I’m able to store a lot of things up there! It’s where I keep the bigger items like furniture, doors, windows, crates, etc. so it doesn’t take up space in our house.
If you are throwing a party, don’t feel like you need to spend a fortune to make it cute! You would be surprised at what you can create and use from what you already have! And Pinterest can seem totally overwhelming, but it can also be your best friend and inspire you! I always get ideas from there and recreate what I love, but I mix it in with my own ideas too and end up with an awesome party! Of course, I did buy things for the party, but most of our budget was spent on food since I always invite a million people…
Some DIY projects from this party:
Pirate ship- Made from a giant cardboard box and a sharpie. We bought a 2x2 for the mast and stapled some fabric we had as the sail. I printed a pirate flag offline and glued it to some cardboard. The whole thing cost maybe $5.
Clock tower- More cardboard and some paint I already had. I printed off the silhouettes, cut them out and glued it on the the clock I got for $3 at Hobby Lobby.
ALL of the signs- Pieces of pallet boards or leftover wood we already along with paint we already had!
Teepees- The white teepee was a Christmas gift and the other two we used some cheap wooden dowels and burlap. We had those materials leftover from various previous projects.
Giant flowers- I found a tutorial on Pinterest and just made adjustments so it worked for me. They are just tissue paper wrapped and taped around some metal wire (sort of like chicken wire, but it's called stucco corner). Steven put some wooden dowels in the ground and we slid them onto that so they wouldn't fall.
Pixie houses- This is where I actually spent a little money- but only because all the fairy houses were the kid's favors after they painted them! I feel like that knocks out two birds with one stone- an activity AND a party favor! Joann's has the little bird houses for $1.50. I bought maybe 20 and used a coupon so they weren't even that much! I also bought a few paint colors and extra paint brushes (which is just nice to have anyway). For the two I made as decoration I just used some rocks and fake leaves we had and some sticks Piper helped me find in our yard! Easy peasy!
Chalkboards- I bought a few from Joann's years ago for cheap and I use them at every party since you can draw whatever you want! I print out what I want, trace the back of the paper with chalk and then press it onto the board. The chalk transfers over and makes it SO simple to draw over to darken!
If you want to throw a party and you just feel overwhelmed or like you can't afford to, take a step back and look around at what you already have! I promise you can throw some things together and make it great!
Want to know how I made something else or where I got it? Just ask!
xoxo, Jena