DIY: Good as Gold ~Adorable Mint Golden Birthday Party~

I learned about golden birthdays recently. In case you don’t know, it’s when you

turn the age of the day your birthday is, so if your birthday is July 22nd your golden birthday is when you turn 22.

My daughter’s golden birthday was fast approaching so I started planning. I decided on a gold & mint theme and this is what I pulled together.  I was on a tight budget for this party so I used what I already had on hand and just spent a few dollars to make up for what I was missing. 

~Backdrop~

 Supplies needed:

 Kraft paper

 Glitter

 Elmers glue

 Sheet protector

Optional:

glitter spray paint

I found a font in Word that I liked and printed my words as large as I could on a regular 8x11 sheet. I then put that paper in a sheet protector and traced the letters with a marker directly on the sheet protector.

I removed the paper, taped the sheet protector on a clear plastic lid and stood it in front of the wall.

Next, I pinned my kraft paper up on the wall. Using the flashlight on my phone, I put the light up to the lid and projected my letters onto the wall (where my kraft paper was pinned) and adjusted it to the size I wanted. I traced the letters onto my kraft paper, took my paper down and set it on my table (or floor)and put heavy objects on the end to keep the paper from curling up. Then I traced and filled the letters in glue and sprinkled with glitter and let dry over night.

Optional: 

spray all over with glitter spray paint and let dry (it dries pretty quick… 30 min to an hour)

I made a cute tissue paper garland to add to my backdrop using

this method and also pinned individual pompoms along the sides to create a border and hung

gold balloons from the ceiling.  

I decorated a dollar store candle and jazzed up some mason jars I had on hand with Gold spray

paint and glitter.

I filled my apothecary

jars with gold wrapped chocolates & candies. (werthers candies, mini

snickers, twix, reeses pieces cups, almond kisses, rolos, and hershey nuggets) and made some macarons with

the help of this video and some cupcakes with golden Oreos on the bottom.

Birthday girl was thrilled with her party!

-Jennifer

DIY Monster Themed Birthday Party

My baby was turning one, so I had the difficult decision of what to do for his party.  I knew I didn't want to do the same theme that I did with my first, so off to Pinterest I went.  No themes stood out to me but I finally decided on a Monster Party.  

We decided to go home to Kansas and do a party with family and have another one at our house a week later with friends and our local family.  For the parties I made the invites, thank you cards, birthday banner, monster magnets and coloring books for the monster goodie bags and monster party hats..  My MIL went all out and got monster hats and napkins.  My SIL even made a kick ass monster cake and smash cake.  I reused the hirchair banner that I made for my first (another pinterest find).

All of theses items were super easy to make.  I found all my monsters for free at mycutegraphics.com.  I found a card design that I liked and made it myself using InDesign.  For the party bags and hats all you need is a sharpie and some googly eyes.  The magnets were also super easy.  I saved bottle caps of all sizes and painted them, then added googly eyes and feathers for hair.  I added cardboard to the back of the cap to make if a flush surface and then added the magnet.  To make the highchair banner all you need is some ribbon and a hot glue gun.  I cut the ribbon to fit my highchair and then hot glued ribbon of varing lenth and width to the back to the ribbon I measured for the highchair.  I attached the highchair banner with some scotch tape.

Theme parties can add and Pinterest can be overwhelming.  It will save you money to make most of the items yourself and remember it doesn't have to be perfect or a lot.  A little decoration goes a long way.

Unlike

-Jill