Twinkle Twinkle

Hello! Guest writer here! I am the blog founder’s twin sister, Jessie, and I’m here to share my decorations and ideas from my little girl Madison’s first birthday party. You can use these decoration ideas for anything from baby showers, birthday parties, to graduation parties depending on what your theme is. If your theme involves stars, pink, or gold then you are in luck!

party
The dessert table before the desserts!

Let’s first start with the pink and gold theme. All of the tablecloths, plates, napkins, and containers are from Walmart. I wanted a good deal, but also wanted it to look good and found the best deals there. Michaels was another store I frequented for ideas and supplies. All of the numbers, letters, and banner supplies were purchased there.

Okay, before we dive too deep into how each decoration was made, let’s check out some pictures!

party6
The birthday girl’s chair!

All of the banner pennants in this article were purchased from Michaels. The letters on all of the banners are stick on letters from Michaels too. However, they don’t stay on the thick fabric of the pennants so need to be glued on. I used a hole puncher to make 2 holes at the top of each pennant and put string through them. I purchased some glitter foam sheets from Walmart to make the stars and used a cookie cutter to trace them.

party14
The happy birthday banner hanging above the food table.

Again, I used the materials I purchased to make this banner and it was fairly easy because everything was cut out besides the stars. This banner was definitely worth the time to put it together, it was super cute and personalized to her party. I moved the pictures that were originally above the banner and replaced them with picture frames of Madison.

party10

Balloons were purchased at the dollar store. I used the cork board from the kitchen to put pictures of her from the first year-a simple and affordable decoration. The 12 month banner was also made from the pennants. I simply traced the star cookie cutter and cut out stars instead of using the pennant shape. If you don’t have a cookie cutter you could print out a star from a computer and trace it! I found little pink clothespins at Michaels and hot glued them to the stars so the pictures could be added below the banner. This could also be a cute idea for other types of parties. You could write someone’s name and have pictures of them beneath it or for graduation with pictures from each school year. The options are endless!

party18
Again, I cut out stars and added the stick on letters with glue. These stars were cut from glitter foam paper.
party7
Stars, stars, everywhere!

I made the twinkle banner, the stars hanging from the chandelier and the star wands on the table that I used as party favors and a centerpiece. For the stars hanging from the light, I cut out stars from the foam paper and attached it to felt pink cloth I had. I cut the outline of the pink cloth around the gold star so it looks like an outline for the stars.

As for the wands, I purchased gold straws from Michaels and they were very sturdy made from cardboard and didn’t bend. I decided to use the foam paper to cut out two stars and stick them together around the top of the straw. I also included 2 cut pieces of ribbon on the wand. I put one on each side of the star and pushed the stars together (they have sticky backs, but you could easily glue them). They were a hit!

party4
Yum! I made chocolate covered pretzels with pink chocolate melts and gold sprinkles. I also made the sugar cookies with star and number one cookie cutters!
party9
No, I didn’t make this beautiful cake. However, I thought the stars sticking out of the top were so cute and easy to make! They simply used some wire and cut out stars they hot glued to the wire! 
party11
Pictures, pictures, everywhere! 
party13
Super cheap decoration-pictures on string! I used pink string and taped the pictures. For a twinkle twinkle theme you could also use string lights around the house for decorations!
party17
A giant number one made with pictures!

There are great tutorials online about making the number one with pictures for your baby’s first birthday. Most people recommend using cardboard from a large appliance box. I didn’t have any available, so used regular printer paper. I simply cut pictures and fit them on the paper with glue, then laminated the paper. I am a teacher so I happen to have a small scotch laminator at home that worked perfectly. I lined up all the papers to make the number one and adhered it to the wall with tape!

party16

party20
You might be wondering about her outfit and this wonderful sign. I’m sorry to tell you that I didn’t make them. A local woman made them both for me. 
party2
My sister (aka the blog writer) made her beautiful dress and headband. Hopefully there will be a post on that coming up soon! Yes, Madison wanted the cake.

If you are a very busy person with many kids, making all of these decorations might be too time consuming. However, even making a small amount of them is very rewarding. It not only adds a personal touch, but can be used as a keepsake or for future parties!

party19
Thank you for visiting this blog and YOU can make these decorations too with a little time and effort!
FollowFacebookpinterestrssyoutube
ShareFacebookpinterest

1st Birthday Ducky Theme!

As I searched the internet for ideas for my munchkins first birthday, I noticed a lack of imagination for the rubber ducky birthday theme!  So I have decided to share what I came up with in hopes of giving others ideas as well.

duck

My little Cecelia loves rubber duckies.  She has since she was introduced in the bathtub to them.  Now, besides just the rubber duckies, she loves everything ducky!  She crawls right over to any books that contain ducks; especially, the duck and goose series!  I even got her a large rubber duck down at the shore.

IMG_1693

So I didn’t want to go overboard on her first birthday since she won’t remember it, but…of course we had to have rubber ducks everywhere!

 IMG_1456

First, I made Cece a 1st birthday dress. You can click here to see some of the details however right now I do not have a full tutorial. If you are interested in purchasing one you can private message me.  My Etsy site is upcoming.

IMG_2545IMG_2457IMG_0192

First I thought to myself, well if it is a rubber duck party, then I definitely need rubber ducks for favors!  So I searched the web for the cheapest, yet best rubber duckies for about 35 people.  I ended up going with an assortment of 2 inch rubber ducks from amazon.  There were some bad reviews that they were not a good assortment; however, I found them very varied in theme.

IMG_2020

Last minute, I decided to make birthday crowns!  This tutorial can show you how to make easy quick crowns!  Of course, if you have a large amount of kids coming you may want to just buy party hats or completely skip this.  I used scrap pieces to make the crowns and just did ribbon along the bottom that could be tied.  You of course can do buttons, Velcro, or if you know the head size, sew it all the way around.

IMG_2475IMG_0058 (2) IMG_2478

Next, of course I needed party decorations!  I didn’t want to spend 10 dollars for 8 fancy paper plates with cute ducks on them.  So, I made a trip to my dollar store and bought yellow napkins, plates, cups, and silverware.  They also had cute I’m one plates, so I bought a couple of those as well.  Since the weather is nice, we had lots of tables outside and I bought yellow tablecloths.

plates

As far as balloons, I ended up buying balloons on amazon, ones with little ducks on them and then two large Mylar duck balloons.  They did not carry these type at my local stores.  The only place around to fill the balloons was the dollar store.  Do you see a theme here?  **Note: it does cost more to have Mylar balloons filled, so if you are saying a buck or two you can skip the Mylar and go for the regular smaller balloons.

 balloons

IMG_0145

I also used the rubber duckies to decorate everywhere!  I had a couple mums and vases in the house and added little ducks to them!

IMG_2559 IMG_2560Food…of course this is key for a party.  I wanted to save some time but not spend too much money either.  So, I decided to order a couple small party trays and then do crock pot recipes.  I didn’t go crazy with the duck theme food since there weren’t a lot of kids coming to the party.  However, if you want to see some duck themed food check out pinterest for lots of ideas.  Yes, we did deviled eggs and some quacky snack mix that I used small duck cups for.  Cake. Originally I was thinking of making my own cake, there are tons of ideas on pinterest.  However, with more than 40 people coming, and cheap but tasty sheet cakes with a free smash cake included, I decided to save myself the stress and space in my fridge, and order a cake with a duck theme.  However, let me show you some of the ideas I picked up from pinterest. 

cake2 cake3Duck Birthday Ideas: click for more pinterest ideas.

I was GIVEN THE WRONG CAKE WITH NO SMASH CAKE when I went to pickup the cake two hours before the party!  I was given a mere 1/4 sheet cake (wrong size) with the wrong duck design on it, and NO smash cake!  Don’t panic I told myself as my mind reminded me I only ordered this a month in advance to make it was done right!  After several minutes of panic, the manager apologized and stated they could make my cake and smash cake in about two hours.  I agreed but would have to send someone else back to pick it up.  Lukily, my brother in law agreed to pick it up and got fifty percent off the cake.  Phew, added stress you don’t need!

I ended up addin some small ducks to the smash cake! Note: it was a HUGE SMASH CAKE!

IMG_2576 IMG_2577 IMG_2578 IMG_2579IMG_0257

I also made duck shaped cookies with a duck cookie cutter!  And then I used yellow icing to make the number one of them!  Half were pumpkin sugar cookies and the other half regular sugar cookies

4c8a5e03-6c2c-44c9-be3f-3adc2c0edd95

Drinks. Duck punch of course!  There are a variety of recipes to make blue punch.  I ended up doing half blue hawiian punch, half 7up, and then putting in vanilla ice cream to make it look like bubbles!  You can clean rubber ducks up well and put them in, or freeze them in ice!  I also had a punch server that I put ice and ducks in the middle and then put water in it! 

IMG_2532punch

Play.
Since there were a handful or two of kids coming, I decided to buy a couple items and also set up items for the kids to play with.  Of course we had games such as bean bag toss, bacchi ball, redneck golf, and Frisbee setup for adults.

IMG_2555

I bought some duck beach balls off amazon.  They came in a 12 pack so I got them cheap enough and gave them away as favors too.

Birthday chalkboard!  I love this idea!  And it is so easy to make!  Now again, I needed to save myself some time with this project, but also not spend too much money.  My handwriting is awful, so making a chalkboard myself was out of the question.  I also wanted it on a poster board to have it as a keepsake.  So if you are into graphic design you can make your own up and have it printed at an office store.  However, I am not into graphic design so I investigated the options at etsy.  I ended up going with a 5.99 graphic for ducks and edited the sections myself with adobe.  I took it to staples to have it mounted on a poster board and enlarged.

IMG_0084

HOWEVER, **Note: the file was locked due to the seller having a password.  The staples I went to could not print it so I had to have it turned into a JPEG.  The seller offered to do it, but I didn’t want to wait, so I just changed it myself on a free online program.  Just type in change to JPEG and you can easily find a free site.  For these pre-made designs you cannot change the pictures or the design, only the words can be edited.  For mounting on a thick foam poster board and enlarging to 16×20, it cost me 16.99 online.  I am very pleased with the way it turned out and now it is displayed in her room as a great keepsake!IMG_0108 IMG_0154

You can of course buy a chalkboard and make your own.  You can even print out different fonts and trace them onto the board.  You can also buy a cheap graphic design program and make your own.  Again, for the price, and since it was last minute, it was easiest for me to order it.

IMG_2528

So that is it folks!  Although she won’t remember this, I have lots of pictures and we had lots of fun!

Hope you enjoyed the post and I hope it gave you some good ideas!  You can check out my pinterest site for more ideas!  Follow us on facebook too!

 

FollowFacebookpinterestrssyoutube
ShareFacebookpinterest

1st birthday dress!

I wanted that special 1st birthday dress, but not that especially high price that comes with most of them!  So once again, I searched pinterest, etsy, and other sites to find ideas.  I ended up combining ideas, as well as making up my own, to design with the dress I created. The theme was rubber duckies for her party.  Therefore, I wanted to incorporate duckies as well as other birthday fabrics.  I went to the store and examined numerous fabrics, buying  a yard of my favorites!  The extra fabric I ended up using to create the crowns!

IMG_2549

I purchased the iron on birthday 1 and ducky from etsy.  The number is even personalized with her name!  I also bought the duck buttons from the store.  I used white hair bands that I cut to make the loop holes for the buttons on the top of the shoulders.

IMG_0057 (2)

So how did I make this dress?  Well that’s a secret! But I can give you some hints.  If you are truly interested in a dress like this you can private message me or come back and look for my future etsy link!

IMG_2455 IMG_2453

The skirt of course took the longest because of the detail.  I added yellow ribbon in between the rows as well.

IMG_2459

Then I added the cute duck to the back of the dress.  Personally, this dress could be used as a 2 in 1 dress because the back is also so cute!  However, the 1 in the front personalized this as a 1st birthday dress.

 

IMG_2457Well check out the other tutorials, as well as the 1st birthday party theme page for more ideas! Feel free to share pictures of your little one’s first birthday dress!

FollowFacebookpinterestrssyoutube
ShareFacebookpinterest