To say that I got lots of inspiration from Pinterest would be an understatement. Although I didn’t use every idea that I came across, I think I did a pretty good job of sticking to my color scheme and overall theme for the party. You can click here to visit my pinboard for Ella’s birthday party.
First up is always invitations. I was so proud of my idea this year, I was just worried that I couldn’t pull it off! K took Ella’s pictures against a white backdrop and I clipped the background out and cut her off at the waist. I illustrated the mermaid tail and other sea creatures in and around the invitation and could not be happier with how it turned out. We had them printed on a pearl cardstock, which really gave a sparkly and ethereal look to the paper suite. She was tickled to see herself with a mermaid tail!
For favors, I wanted to buy pool noodles and stand them up in a barrel at the entrance to the pool gate. I remember them being a dollar a piece and figured that was a great and inexpensive way to treat our guests. Wow, have you checked out the price of noodles these days? $3.88 was way outside of my budget for twenty-four kids! Instead, we bought these bubble wands and figured the kids would have a blast playing with them outside if they didn’t want to swim.
I designed and printed coordinating favor tags, six to a page, and tied them on each wand with tulle ribbon.
Adorable, right?
Next up was snowcones. We knew we could get crushed ice locally and thought it would be so fun to serve snow cones instead of ice cream at the party. I had seen these flavor syrups at Walmart earlier in the summer and snagged them for a few dollars each. The only problem was those ugly labels!
I added these cute labels and covered them with packing tape to make them water proof. I had no doubt that there would be wet little hands filling their cups and I didn’t want these cute little labels running all over the place.
There. Isn’t that better?
This doesn’t really fall in the realm of paper products, unless you count the wrapping paper, but I thought I’d share Ella’s gift. She requested “an outfit from the Gap and movie tickets” and I did my best to oblige. We ended up getting these skinny leopard print jeans from Mini Boden, the top from Gap and the flats from Old Navy. How chic will kindergarten be this fall?
I had scored this greek key patterned paper in the dollar section at Target early in the summer and thought if I paired it with purple tulle and turquoise raffia that it would coordinate so well with the party theme.
One pretty bow and a sparkly Christmas ornament later and we’re in business.
Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for the best homemade pinata tutorial ever!
