Birthday Party Planning Tips

To plan this birthday party, I asked my daughter what was most important to her. I used that list to make sure that the things most important to her would be highlights of the party. I did not want to knock myself out trying to achieve something my daughter could care less about. I recommend asking your child what is important to them. You might be really surprised about what they want.



For pink decorations, I had the kids blow up the balloons with their hot air! (Getting helium was an extra cost and I am on a budget! Kids come with plenty of hot air that is 100% free!) Then I took the thread and tied a good firm loop in one end. I took a balloon and tied it to the thread every five inches. The balloons sort of made their own pattern but still looked floaty and romantic. I formed a second loop at the other end of the garland. I hooked the garland ends on the window latches and added a white Command hook to the ceiling to create the arch. If you don't have window latches to use, then just use two more Command hooks. And as a final touch, we curled the ribbon and just tied two foot sections onto the garland every so often. My daughter loved it. We also made a balloon garland for the kids' rec room where most of the party was going to take place. For this room we just hooked the balloons over the ceiling fan. It took a bit of time to tie all the balloons together, but it was cheap and got raves from all the parents and kids.



I also bought two rolls of wrapping paper. One became the table cloth, the other one turned into a back drop for photos and I used a portion to cover the popcorn tin. All of that for $6.00. Here are two special girls modeling the fabulous background for me.



The all important birthday cake was fun to create out of cupcakes. My daughter LOVES cupcakes so we made them for her party. I whipped up a white cake mix and put it into plain white cupcake papers. When the cupcakes were baked and cooled, I frosted them with white frosting. I took a tube of glittering pink gel and squirted it all over the top of the white frosting and smoothed it over with a knife. White nonpareils went on top of that. Finally I used a sparkling candle cut in half as the candle.



Gift bags are a big deal at birthday parties. My daughter wanted the gift bags to include things she loves...mainly chocolate and jewelry. We made bags of chocolate covered pretzel rods and bags of our special polka dot candy mix. For the girls we made a set of jewelry including a pair of earrings and a bracelet in the party theme colors of brown, pink and green. I also picked up plastic sunglasses at Wal Mart and plastic rings.

To make the jewelry, I bought green, pink and brown beads from Wal Mart along with a set of bronze findings. The findings set included the pieces to make 5 bracelets, 4 pair of earrings and I still have pieces leftover for another project.



Let's make the earrings first. I slipped three beads on a wire called eye pins and used my round-nose pliers to make a round loop at the top of the wire. Then I slipped it onto a french earring wire and closed the connection.



For the bracelets, I tie about 12 inches of fishing line onto a lobster clasp leaving about an one inch tail.



Then I thread the beads onto the fishing line. I make sure to put the beads over the tail of the knot. The pattern I used for this bracelet was pretty simple, but you can do whatever you would like. After the beads have been strung, I added two single jump rings to the fishing line.



I tied the fishing line into a knot over the two jump rings and ran about an inch back through the beads.



When everything was ready to go, we gathered everything on the craft room table.



I laid eight sheets of tissue paper on the table. The boys' gift bags included a bag of pretzels, a bag of candy, sunglasses and a plastic sport whistle. Everything was laid out in the middle of the top half of the tissue paper.



Then the bottom half of the tissue paper was flipped up.



Gather up the tissue paper.



And finally drop it all in the gift bag.



For more pictures and tips of how I pulled this party together click here.

My Wal Mart Shopping List:
8 Gift Bags...($1.00 each) $8.00
Pink Tissue Paper
2 Rolls Polka Dot Wrapping Paper...($3.00 each) $6.00
Pink Beads
Green Beads
Brown Beads
Bronze Findings Kit
Pink M&M's
Green M&M's
Pink Malt Balls
Brown Malt Balls
Chocolate covered Chocolate Cookies
Treat Bags
7 Up
Watermelon...$4.00
Kiwi Fruit
Microwave Pop Corn
Pink Straws...$.88
Pink Plates
Pink Napkins
Pink Balloons
Plastic Sunglasses
Plastic Rings
Plastic Sport Whistles
Pink Glitter Gel
Sparkling Candles
White Cake Mix
White Frosting
Brown Ribbon with White Polka Dots
Pink Ribbon with White Polka Dots
Thin Green Ribbon
Thin Blue Ribbon