Welcome to another Make It Monday!
You may be coming here from Lisa’s site where she is Springing forward with a fun handmade embellishment. If you are starting here then at the end of this post I will have a link to another site where you can continue your journey until you circle back to Lisa.
A couple weeks ago I shared how I like to use my Silhouette Cameo to create custom birthday party invitations and decor – you can see that post here. Today I want to share my best party tips and some photos from my eldest’s Hawaiian themed party.
First a reminder of what the invitations looked like.
Tip #1 – Keep it Consistent
Whether you’re buying pre-made invitations, goody bags, and decor or – like me – making some and buying some, my biggest tip is to keep things consistent across the board. If you’re throwing a party for a four year old boy who loves trains, it just doesn’t make sense to have goody bags with Iron Man on them. Maybe that’s my Type A/OCD personality coming out but when you mix in different elements it just becomes a hot mess. Of course, I’m sure the four year old also loves Iron Man and sometimes we Control Freaks just need to loosen up!
Am I right?
For this party though, I wanted matching goody bags so once again my Silhouette was put through its paces to create these many flowered lei goody bags.
Theme consistency also applies to colour consistency. Here, brightly coloured bags plus some some tropical coloured card stock (all from Michael’s) make a real impact.
And a pile of brightly coloured leis by the front door welcome the guests and set the tone for the rest of the night.
Tip #2 – Know When and Where to Save $$
Before you gasp at the expense of using so many enamel dots on those bags, let me put your mind at ease by saying that I made my own. Check out this video on YouTube to see how I made them. My first batch had little dimples in them from the hole in the pony beads but my second batch were perfect! So don’t be afraid to keep them in the oven til that dimple disappears.
I love my girls but we are not in a position to spend a ton of money on their birthday parties (and since I have 3 to throw in a 6 week period, that Mastercard needs as many breaks as it can get!) I choose to make my own die cuts for my invitations and decorations rather than purchasing pre-made, the bags are not the most expensive choice on the rack, and the card stock was on sale. Win, win, win!
Tip #3 – The Dollar Store Is Your Friend!
For whatever reason, in the small town where we live, we have 2 dollar stores! There is another one in the next town over (5 minutes away) and I also work right beside another one. You might say I know their product offerings a little bit too well! Shopping wisely allows me to get everything I need that I can’t actually make myself.
This is where knowing your theme comes in handy.
I knew we were throwing a Hawaiian party. I knew our invitations contained bright colours. It was an easy and logical step to purchase a variety of brightly coloured plates, napkins, cups and table cloth. I allowed my colour matching side to take a vacation and embraced all the different colours! Ah!
I was tempted to buy grass skirts for all the guests but at $1.50 a pop for 14 guests (plus my own 3) I decided to just buy enough to decorate the eating area a bit. Here is where I share a tip I perpetually fail to follow myself!
Tip #4 – Plan It Out Early
In my own defense, our “normal” every day household activity level reaches Stupid proportions, but lately it’s been in the Insanely Stupid category! So while the theme, guests, invitations, food, games and activities, and other such aspects of this party were indeed planned out well in advance, the shopping part of it was left to the last minute with some Epic Fails as a result.
One – I had a vision of a blue draped table wrapped in these flower topped hula skirts with a paper pineapple centrepiece. That was the plan. Above you see the reality. Due to poor planning (in this case, not measuring my table circumference to know exactly how many hula skirts I’d need) and hurried execution (forgetting to book the day off work so rushing about like a mad woman to throw everything together in roughly 3 hours), I had to abandon the skirted table idea (after a few choice words were uttered at the half covered table to which the skirts refused to stick) in favour of a skirted counter.
Nice recovery, right?
Two – For heavens sake don’t leave it to the last minute to buy the food! Or insure your vehicle. And never at the same time so your wife is left at the house with 14 starved girls and only two small bags of kettle corn to keep them happy!
Enough said!
Moving on …
Tip #5 – Enlist Your Children to Help
Here we once again run into my control freak side. The side that hates giving up control to someone else because “I can do it better, faster and use less tape”. But you need to squash that side of you like a little bug in times like these!!
Yes, that is blue painters tape holding up the streamer. And yes, it’s not draped, or twisted, or hung with any sort of artistic finesse but …. it’s up.
Marley returned from her Soccer Season Wrap Up Bowling Party (after her soccer tournament day one game one – remember, Insanely Stupid schedules!) with two friends to help with last minute decorating. I take absolutely no responsibility for the streamer placement! Just wanted to make that clear. 🙂
Oh, and yes, it is March and yes, we live in the Northern Hemisphere but apparently a Hawaiian party required you to wear your bathing suit.
The final verdict on the party was that it was fun, but too loud and the Birthday girl is having a few regrets about inviting so many girls. But she didn’t want to leave anyone out. Hard choices ahead! This Mum’s final verdict is that this may have to be the last Big Fling for this girl. Hello small intimate parties! Good bye Chaos!!
Okay, now that you’ve had a little glimpse into my crazy life, head on over to see Beth. She is sharing how she has adapted Project Life to work for her
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