Baby Girl Bow Birthday Party

March 22, 2014September 22, 20213 Comments

My baby girl just turned one and because her birthday is exactly a week after Dub’s, I’ll admit I ran out of steam on the party planning. However, I wanted to do something special and celebrate as a family, and was able to put together a cute Bow Birthday theme really inexpensively. Baby Girl Bow Birthday Party | Five Marigolds

To keep birthday party planning expenses manageable, we buy a few essentials that we reuse year after year.

These include:

Bunting (similar here and here)
Centerpieces
My Special Day chair covers that we reuse for birthdays, first days of school, and any day we want to recognize and celebrate each child individually.

Baby Girl Bow Birthday Party Chair Cover | Five Marigolds

Additionally, we always save leftover party supplies such as napkins, plates and plastic cutlery and every few years we find we don’t have to buy these supplies at all because of that stash. That was the case for baby ‘Belle’s party.

For the cupcakes, I whipped up a batch of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and frosted them in pink and white buttercream frosting. I wanted them to carry out the bow theme, but because I’m lacking in fondant skills I purchased these toppers. You can find similar fondant bows here and here.

Baby Girl Bow Birthday Party Pink Cupcakes | Five Marigolds

Baby Girl Bow Birthday Party Pink Bow Cupcakes | Five Marigolds

We served homemade vanilla ice cream and a simple punch using 7-Up and raspberry sherbet.

With just two inexpensive plastic tablecloths from the dollar store, I made this impressive table centerpiece by using one tablecloth as usual, and using the other as a decorative sash by draping it across the front and simply pinching it in the middle. I actually unfolded some of the party napkins and fashioned a bow out of them – one napkin for each side of the bow, and two for the tails. Surprisingly beautiful, easy and inexpensive!

Baby Girl Bow Birthday Party | Five Marigolds

Next, I made bow napkin rings – I love how these turned out! I bought rectangle shaped napkins, but you could also do this by folding traditional napkins in half. Simply pinch them in the middle, place them on top of your cutlery and wrap a small band of paper around the bow, secured with tape.

Baby Girl Bow Birthday Party Napkin Ring

Baby Girl Bow Birthday Party Napkin Rings

As I mentioned earlier, I used leftover napkins to make the bow you see on the front of the table to carry the theme through.

I took a little photo shoot of baby ‘Belle sporting her birthday bow. I’d say the cupcakes were a hit! 5m bow birthday cake smash

Like the ideas you see here? Be sure to follow my birthday party inspiration board and subscribe below to keep partying with me!

Looking for more inspiration? You might like these parties:

DIY Peppa Pig Birthday Party | Five Marigolds

Peppa Pig Party

Malibu Barbie Pool Party Birthday Infographic.2 | Five Marigolds

Malibu Barbie Party

Princess Birthday for $20

https://fivemarigolds.wpenginepowered.com/2014/08/04/eves-princess-party/

Star Wars Birthday Party, Part II Party Favors

March 19, 2014September 22, 202142 Comments

Growing up, we didn’t really “do” favor bags. I suppose that’s why I’m really into them when planning parties for my kids. Presents for everyone, just for attending?! I wish grown-up parties would adopt this practice!

I wanted to do something fun for these Star Wars birthday favors, with at least a few items that would get used beyond the ride home from the party. But, of course, I didn’t want to spend a lot of money.

I created these goodie bags for around $3 each, total.

To create the actual bag, I used inexpensive white paper bags from the grocery store. I searched for the keywords “storm trooper silhouette” and found an image I like. I downloaded this free Star Jedi font and added the words “You’re a trooper” to the 5.5″x10.5″ template I created in PhotoShop. Read to the end of this post for the free printable!

I printed the image directly on the bags. To do this, you need to go into your printer settings and create a custom paper size and paper texture. I used a small piece of painter tape to secure the base flap to the bag so it wouldn’t jam in the printer. It took some trial and error before I felt like they were printing a clean image, without a lot of extra printer ink. I was going for inexpensive though, so despite a few rough printouts, these captured the look I was going for.

Here are the bag contents:

Star Wars Lego spaceship kit here or here
Glow stick “lightsaber”
Star Wars Angry Birds Marker/Stamp
Angry Birds fruit snacks
Star Wars tattoo
“Lightsaber” bubble wand

Knowing all the boys are really into Legos at this age, I really wanted to include some. I explored a lot of avenues, but almost everything was going to be a budget buster. I’ve heard of some creative moms creating their own little sets using the Pick a Brick section at the Lego store, but at $14.99/bucket, it was going to be a little more than I wanted to pay, and I wasn’t even sure if I could really build a believable spaceship.

I found my solution on ebay and Amazon: there are tons of people looking to unload Star Wars Advent Calendar kits or individual toys. I was able to score a lot of 11 for $1/each including shipping. Even better, each little kit came with building instructions – far better than what I would have been able to do myself using Pick a Brick. For those of you who have messaged me about being unable to find these deals on ebay, you can still find them here for less than $2 per favor!

I created my own hangtag using the same Star Wars font with a message from Yoda, “Do or do not, there is no try” along with a thank you message.

In addition to the goodie bags, we had a Jedi Training academy. We gave each little guest a Jedi vest made with an unused bed sheet we didn’t need and clothesline rope.

We also created the pool noodle lightsabers that are all the rage on Pinterest. We cut pool noodles in half using a serrated bread knife and decorated the ends with black and silver duct tape. Each little guest was given one to defeat some balloon storm troopers and then take home.These were the biggest hit of the party (literally, there was one bloody nose incident!).

No party is complete without a little craft, so we also had a Build A Droid work station that they seemed to enjoy. But not quite as much as the pool noodle light sabers, of course.

Star Wars Build a Droid R2D2 Craft | Five Marigolds

Build a Droid Star Wars Craft

I had a lot of fun creating a fun party all the kids would enjoy. Planning a Star Wars party for someone special? I’m sharing the free printable Storm Trooper Favor Bag Design to my subscribers!

Are you planning to use them for your upcoming party? Please take a moment to tell me about it, below!

DIY Advent Calendar – the beginning

September 20, 2013September 22, 20212 Comments

DIY Felt Advent Calendar | Five Marigolds

As a kid, I absolutely loved Advent Calendars. You know, the little paper calendars with the perforated doors. Sometimes there was a Christmas picture behind the little paper door and sometimes a bible verse. It didn’t matter, I loved the process of opening on each day. I wanted to create an Advent Calendar tradition with my own children, but I wanted to create a keepsake – something they would look forward to getting out each year.

So, I went to the interwebs to find something to inspire me – and the pickings were slim. This was in 2008, a pre-Pinterest era, and there just wasn’t a lot out there I loved. Enter Stitchcraft Creations with her super cute felt calendar. With her pretty version as my guide, I embarked on “adventures in Advent Calendars.”

Back to school for boys – on a budget

August 11, 2013September 22, 2021Leave a comment

UPDATE: Find my updated Back to school wardrobe for boys here and here. Since this is an older post and continues to get a lot of Pinterest traffic, I do my best to link to similar items from this set, below. Thanks for stopping by!

Little Dub is going to be in kindergarten this year. He’ll be going full days, every day. I have to admit I’m a little nervous for him – it will be a huge change, but one that I think will be good for him. He will be wearing a uniform this year which is pretty uninspiring fashion-wise, but I was pretty happy when I scored his full wardrobe during the Old Navy uniform sale for only around $110!

Even though Dub will be in uniform, I had fun laying out a back to school wardrobe for boys. My goal was to put together a minimum of 10 outfits for $150. I failed – mostly because the pants alone accounted for around $60 of the budget. However, if you chose a less expensive brand for the pants and denim this set would be much closer to $150.

Where are you finding the best wardrobe staples for boys this fall?

Back to school wardrobe for boys - $170 / 10 looks

Back to school – boys wardrobe – $170 / 10 looks by shellrock1 featuring a hooded zip jacket

Activity/quiet book

July 13, 2013September 22, 20214 Comments

For Dub’s first Christmas years ago, I decided I wanted to start the tradition of making something homemade for my kids for each Christmas. I ambitiously took on an activity book project to kick off the tradition, knowing I could add pages to it each year.

I drew inspiration from the interwebs and used a few patterns But mostly, I just winged it. Ididn’t want it to look perfect, I wanted it to look inviting and fun!

I did a lot of web surfing for inspiration. I used a few patterns from one of my favorite bloggers, Homemade by Jill.
From there, I narrowed down the pages and activities I wanted tobe in the book and madea list of the supplies I needed. I was patient with this and used 40% off coupons at Michael’sand JoAnn’s for several weeks to avoid paying full price on the more expensive supplies. Pre-planning is the most important step to any project, because having allthesupplies on hand means fewer half-finished projects laying around that were never picked back up after the inspiration left!
As a working mom, I made it my goal to complete at least two pages every weekend. This made the project much more manageable for me to take on. Looking face-on at a full weekend of sewing probably would have killed my motivation to start!
After all of the pages were complete, I paired pages two-by-two and sewed twosheetstogether back-to-back.
I then punched three grommets into each set of pages, like you would if you were going to add them to a binder.
Finally, I used loose leaf rings to secure them together. I chose to do it this way so I couldrepair pages or continue to add pages as I had kids.

Materials used:

White felt pages from the craft store (around 25 cents each)
Additional felt pages in various colors
Scrap fabric and notions, like a zipper and ricrac,
Assorted buttons I had saved over the years
Metal snaps (these are easier for little hands to use vs. the plastic snaps)
Chalk Cloth fabric
Loose leaf rings
Grommets
Finger puppets from Ikea for the Noah’s Ark page (pictured below). These are no longer available through Ikea but they pop up on ebay all the time!

I’m happy to say that 4 years later, this book still gets used by Dub and now Eve, too. It’s held up and only needed 1 small repair.

In retrospect, I wish I had more carefully documented the sewing process and made patterns for each page. It took me a long time pull this book together and it would have been so much easier if all the patterns had been in one place. I often wonder if I should go back and make the patterns to share for the next person. If you would like to see that in the future, please be sure to tell me in the comments below!

Super Hero Comic Book Birthday Party

March 14, 2013September 22, 2021Leave a comment

Wow, I can’t believe how time flies. As little Dub’s birthday approached, I knew his would have to be a superhero theme, but I wanted it to be less focused on commercial super heroes and a little more of a generic comic book vibe.

To set the tone, I set off to create a comic book – inspired invite. I coerced him into taking a Clark Kent/super man photo. I just had him wear his Superman pajama shirt under a button down and snap on tie and then put on a pair of glasses frames I got at the dollar store. I went to work in PhotoShop and created this invite. I used PhotoShop action that made him look like a true comic book character.

Next, I wanted to make a comic book pendant. I was very pregnant and on bed rest while planning the party, so I enlisted my mom for help. I bought a comic book off ebay, cut the comic pages into triangles and placed them inside the fold of some red binding I had on hand. Then she simply sewed along the binding and voila! Dub liked this so much he asked to hang it in his room after the party.

Again, since I was very pregnant I decided to hire out the cake in the form of some amazing cupcakes from our local bakery. I made cupcake toppers in PhotoShop and attached them to lollipop sticks I found at Michael’s in the baking section.

This was Dub’s first party where we invited friends, so I was new to the party favor tradition. I asked all the parents in advance to send me a photo of their children so I could personalize each goodie bag with their photo. I added free superhero overlays like masks and emblems from Lil Blue Boo in PhotoShop and they were a huge hit!

As much as I love having balloons to decorate for parties, I hate watching them pathetically deflate in the days following (my kids refuse to throw them away until the bitter end!) So, I attached a balloon to each goodie bag for a festive display that our little guests could take home with them. This was an inexpensive favor with big impact! The kids were thrilled to take them home and I was just as thrilled to see them go.

I had to figure out how to entertain all these kids in our teeny home. So I set up a superhero mask making station. I pre-cut the masks in craft foam and bought self-stick foam stars and letter so kids could decorate them and add their names.

Next, I really wanted to create a photo booth. I bought some polka-dot wrapping paper that I just taped to the wall. I made some photo booth signs in PhotoShop that matched the cupcake toppers, and printed them on 8.5×11″ sheets of white card stock. I cut them out and taped them to the cardboard tube that comes on dry cleaning hangers – it was what I had on hand! Or, if you’re not the DIY type, you could buy some here.)

Dub and a very pregnant me in the photo booth.

My goal was to get pictures of all the kids at the party to put on the thank-you note. What I didn’t count on was how shy the kids would be. I had to beg to get them all to pose together so I could get my thank-you card shot! But I got it, and here’s how it turned out:

I designed the back like a true post card with a fill-in-the-blank thank-you message for Dub to personalize. I heard later that our little guests were thrilled to see themselves in the card.

So, there we have it! Dub’s 5th birthday. For more superhero birthday ideas check out my Pinterest board.

I’ve linked directly to the customizable invites and thank you notes in my Etsy shop. If you would like me to offer free downloads of the cupcake toppers and photo booth signs I used, please let me know in the comments below!

Perfect Pink Lemonade Birthday Party

July 28, 2011September 22, 20211 Comment

I was so excited for Eve’s first birthday and I knew exactly what the theme would be – Pink Lemonade, for my sweet and sour little girl 🙂

Well, then there was an out of state family wedding the weekend of her birthday which meant significantly toning down the birthday plans. Which was hard for me, because I just love a good themed party. Side note: do you know what else is hard? Accidentally deleting all the photos in my camera from said party, and then racing to take just a couple to prove my baby had a party. Ugh!

So to plan the un-party, I started with the basics. One of the things I’ve done for all of my kids is purchase just a few birthday items that we bring out every year, including a pendant banner, centerpieces with photos of them over the years, and a “My special day” seat cover.

lemonadebirthday_5wm

We also use this seat cover for all special occasions, from birthdays to the first day of school and other milestones. It’s a tradition that has become very meaningful to us – when the kids come downstairs in the morning and see their seat cover, they know we’re celebrating them that day.

lemonadebirthday_3wm

Next, I added some cute polka-dot napkins, cups and cute paper straws from Target. I served a basic lemonade some frozen strawberries. Yum!

lemonadebirthday_2wm

I made these adorable cupcakes. I’d scoured the interwebs for the best pink lemonade recipe and landed on this one. Unfortunately, they were just a bit too tart for us! No problemo – that just left more room for the homemade ice cream we made (and Mmmm does our family love homemade ice cream!).

lemonadebirthday_1wm

So there you have it – a very simple, sweet Pink Lemonade birthday. Check out my Pink Lemonade Pinterest board for more ideas for our next Pink Lemonade birthday. Enjoy!

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo! Our Little Boy Turned Two

March 18, 2010September 22, 2021Leave a comment

It was really clear that for Dub’s second birthday it needed to be all about trains. So off we went – chugga, chugga choo choo! Dub was about to be two!

I searched the internet for train birthday cakes I thought I could pull off. I didn’t find anything especially helpful in terms of tutorials, so I had to eyeball it using carved pound cake (slightly frozen works best) and various garnishments to make it look like a train. We used my favorite almond-flavored pound cake from Tastefully simple since we’re not otherwise big pound cake fans. Frosting this sucker was the worst part – I found the cake to be crumbly, even when slightly frozen, so we had to cake the frosting on to disguise them. cake

Notice the chair cover in the background. I had my mother make covers like this for each of our kids to use on special days: birthdays, first days of school and other celebrations. Since all of our family lives out of state, this travels with us for out-of-town celebrations, and the kids know that when they wake up and see this on their chair in the morning – that we’ll be celebrating them that day. It’s become such a fun tradition for all of us!

Puppy Dog First Birthday Party

March 30, 2008September 22, 2021Leave a comment

For Dub’s first birthday, I knew I wanted to do a puppy dog theme. Now, I just love a good themed birthday, but really we don’t go overboard for parties. This was especially true for his first – we just invited a few family members and held at his grandma and grandpa’s home, near where most of our family lives.

We made puppycakes using this tutorial from Family Fun magazine. My photography at that time leaves very little to be desired, but you get the idea.

And, of course, gave puppy chow as party favors with hangtags that read, “It’s been dog-gone fun!”

Five Marigolds

Living life colorfully, one DIY at a time.

Category: Kids