Averie's 1st Birthday Party Prep Vol 2: Decor!

Welcome to Volume 2 of Averie's party- all things decor! This was probably my favorite part of the whole process! It was a lot of planning, penny pinching and a whole lot of fun! My only regret is I never thought to pull back and take a photo of the complete finished product. I have a bunch of photos of the individual features, but not a whole party shot ;( Believe me, I learned my lesson and will not only start the party set up earlier, i will make sure to take more photos!

 

Before we get into all the details, I wanted to share my strategy. It's no shock that kid's parties take money to happen. Since we've been on a small budget for life the last few months, it was important to me that if I stuck to one rule: If something was going to cost me more than $5 I HAD to come up with an alternate use for it later. That was the only way I could justify a bigger purchase in my mind. I spent about $500 hundred when all was said and done, that includes all the food (for 50 people mind you!), all the decorations, our outfits, and entertainment. In my book, that's a win!

 

Lets begin!!!

 

I had 2 major photo projects going on for this party. In our backyard we have a beautiful pergola that I put all the food under. I wanted to "frame" it in a way, so for the 1st project I got bunch of photos printed at Costco, some twine and these really cute sparkly clips (at the dollar store) and made 2 photo garlands. One had my daughter's monthly growth pics and the other had all silly pictures on it. Each had 12 photos, it came out really cool... until the wind started blowing... but it was awesome until then!

Photo by Michael Tebow Photography

For the 2nd photo project I got a bunch of large frames from various locations (the dollar store, thrift stores ect) and spray painted them all white. (All our frames in the house are white and I wanted to be able to use them after) Then I had about a dozen larger prints made of some of my favorite pictures, but I had a lot of large ones on hand from her various photo shoots throughout the year. The entire photo project- including having the Costco prints, the spray paint and the frames I bought- was under $30 and I can use these various photos and frames forever. I didn't have a set plan for these, I just sprinkled them all around the party space (you saw some of them in the previous post, and you'll see more as I continue posting)



Photo by Michael Tebow Photography







Here is a Pinterest inspired craft that I did to highlight all of Averie's "Stats". I've seen it done a bunch of times so I decided to go for it. The frame was an unfinished wood frame from Michaels for $1.50 (after a coupon) that I painted with silver sparkly craft paint that I already had on hand. For the actual board I used chalk board paint (its $9.97 at Home Depot!) I already had the chalkboard markers at home and once I heard you can tint chalkboard paint I jumped right on it!

 

My hubby measured the frame and cut the board for me. Then a quick coat of paint (I only needed 1)...

 

A little wood glue...



Photo by Michael Tebow Photography



And Taaa-daaa!!!! I am so proud of this! I got a TON of compliments on it, I think I may need to make it a tradition at every party. It was a lot of fun too. I know this photo is a little larger than the others, but I wanted you to be able to read all her stats. (Especially the 1st word haha!)

 

This next one, I am really sorry I have no final photos of it.... I felt like I bought all the tulle in my little town. Seriously, I had it all. There was tulle everywhere!!! I had visions of draping it all around our on our outdoor fixtures but I ended up forgetting it in all the party set up. Here were my major colors I had going on throughout the party. 

One thing I got a photo of while making it was the table tutus. I made tutu garlands for all the tables, we even had an extra one, so we hung it off of our pergola. It was really beautiful and I'm still kicking myself for not getting a picture. I used the same method as I did for Averie's photo shoot tutu (you can check that out here) Since it was a larger scale, I used duct tape on our tv stand and a kitchen chair to give me some tension to tie the tulle on the ribbon. (Yes, I am watching Dazed and Confused in this photo... holla at Anthony Rapp!!!)

Full disclosure on this one- I haven't come up with an alternate use for all this tulle, it was most definitely more than my $5 cap for singular projects. I have tons of yardage left, and there are about 10 yards into these tulle garlands. I'm thinking of cutting it down to make a bunch of tutus to give to her friends, or maybe I'll donate them to a local dance school. The other thing I'm thinking about doing is keeping it for a while, and figuring out a way to incorporate it into her bedroom design somehow. If there are any suggestions out there, please send them my way!

One of my favorite little touches that I did was the cheapest and easiest! I found it on Pinterest and it was not only simple, it literally cost me $5 and 20 minutes of my time! It's a flower embellished "1" and I made it out of 2 for $1 fake flowers from the dollar store, and 2 pieces of floral foam (also from the dollar store.)

 

The floral foam was the same thickness that I wanted so all I had to do was cut out what I call the "flare" of the 1. A basic steak knife worked great, it took me all of 3 seconds to cut through it (it was super messy though!)

 

Then I just hot glued all the pieces together.

 

I got scissors out to cut all the buds off of the stems but then I realized that they pull right off... another 10 second job to deflower them all #ThankYouCraftGods

 

 

Here I am with all my pieces ready to start flowering. I had a little trouble getting flowers in my color scheme, but I'm sure if I had shopped at a larger craft store I wouldn't have had any issues. But, for $5 I was fine with it being a little off.

 

 

This photo I enlarged because I wanted you to see that I didn't use any glue to stick them in (you certainly can) but it was totally unnecessary. I didn't have any issues with them coming out at all, even with the wind.

 

And here is the finished product! Even though it was under my $5 mark, I kept it to use as a photo prop and have even lent it out to Averie's friends who have recently turned 1. It came out so great, and I googled around... something like this from a florist would have cost me upwards of $40 and it wouldn't last forever like this one. This too, may become another tradition... I suppose it'll depend on the themes... #ChallengeAccepted

 

This next project is super cool because I got to take an already awesome product and personalize it. I found these little planters at IKEA for $2.99 each. I fell in love with them right away because I thought they would make a cool centerpiece for Averie's party tables, and they sort of reminded me of tiaras. I decided to get them, even though I needed 12 which meant I had to commit to finding another use for them. They were so perfect, I didn't think twice about it. (You can also see a sneak peek of Vol. 3's post in the background!)

 

 

When I got them home, I still had her stat board supplies out and then it hit me- paint the top silver to really showcase the tiara pattern I had fallen in love with, so a little painters tape, foam craft brush and Martha Stewart paint in "Sterling" (both already on hand) and we were on our way to the cutest tiara planters I've ever seen!

 

I decided to repurpose them on my porch. I have a pretty large porch with a deck and I lined these along the rail framing my front door. I plan to get those flame less candles and put them inside. I've heard that people out here tend to spend a lot of time outside in the summer, so these should look great with a little light peeking through on summer nights.

 

 

Here's the finished product!!! So cute with the little tiaras highlighted right? We filled them with some flowers from another project to add some depth to the tables. I didn't end up using one centerpiece, I kinda had two... see I saw this photo on Pinterest:

 

I got a little sentimental when I saw this, because one of my baby showers was a tea party. I just thought it would be cool to reference that so I decided to have 2 centerpieces and have them alternating on the tables. We even used the same tea cups from my shower, so that was kinda cool for me!

 

I didn't mind spending $12 on flowers because I knew we were going to use them multiple times. I only bought 3 bouquets and we still had too many flowers left over, so I also got to enjoy them at home for 2 whole weeks after... seriously! I couldn't believe they lasted that long, when flowers last more than $1 a day, I'm a happy camper!

 

This next one is another IKEA find. I forget the name of these boxes but they come in all colors and they're made of a strong cardboard material. We actually have them in black for some of Mason's things and when I saw them in white I got an idea to make them into platters... not really platters but I wanted to use them to create height on the food table. My original idea was hat boxes but those were crazy expensive. 2 of these come in a pack for $6.99 at IKEA.

 

I already had paint pens on hand from other projects so I used a piece of cardboard and used an exactoknife to cut out a tiara template for myself. Then I just went to town coloring. Adult coloring is always the best.

 

I did one in pink and one in purple. All said and done, it honestly took me about 2 hours to do both boxes. They're bigger than they look for one, and 2 I had to color them before they were built because I wasn't sure what would show and what wouldn't and I really wanted that designer handbag look, so I didn't want any folds to look fake when I put it together.

 

 

Here are the finished products. I don't know if I would recommend this project to anyone who can't sit and knock it all out at the same time. It was hard to do it with a baby around, and it was really time consuming, but I love the look in the end. You can see a peek of these in Vol. 1 but you'll get a better view of them in the pictures of the party favors when I post Vol. 3 As for my repurposing rule, these now hold her bows and hats in her room (which is also a pink and purple theme...shocker right?)

This last project was super easy, but there are a lot of steps, so I did my best to break it down. I got the idea from 2 different projects on another blog I follow Young House Love. They adhered fabric on a wooden letter for their daughters room and for another project they altered cardboard letters in the coolest way! (The links to those 2 projects are on their blog) Let's get started...

 

I got this cardboard A at JoAnns for $1.99

 

 

I cut off the top of the A with my exactoknife.

 

 

Then I sanded the edges for a smooth finish. I used a really fine grit sandpaper so I wouldn't tear it into pieces.

 

 

Then I used my trusty Martha Stewart craft paint (that 4.99 tube has gotten me through MANY projects, well before this party!) and painted the edges. It dries really quickly, in about 30 minutes.

 

 

Then I grabbed my fabric sample and traced the A with a highlighter. At my craft store they sell samples of fabric for $1.99 and since I only needed a little bit I bought this one. A quick cut around the lines and I was in business.

 

Then I used my fabric hardener (basically ModgePodge but a different brand) and painted a thin layer on the bottom of the A. I already had it on hand from Averie's photo shoot crown (the link is above), but I think its $4-$5 if you have to purchase it. There are so many uses for it, it's worth whatever amount it costs.

 

Then I layed the fabric A inside the cardboard A and did another layer of fabric softener over the fabric. I made sure to get into the corners with my fingers so it wouldn't roll up.

And here is the finished A! We hung it from another fixture in the yard where we had the party. If I didn't have to wait for the paint to dry this entire project would only take 10 minutes. Even though this technically comes in under $5 (thanks to coupons!) I still decided to keep this to use as a decoration in Averie's room. It's just too cute to throw out! Plus, we could always use it again at another party.

So that concludes Vol. 2: Décor! This was probably my favorite part of throwing this entire party. I love making things, and I really loved that I made things with multiple uses, because it automatically gives it a history and a story. These are the things I'll remember the most, because I get to tell Averie how much love was really put into her 1st birthday.

Stay tuned for Vol. 3: Entertainment coming soon!