Easy Ice Cream Theme Birthday Party

Before we get lost in the sea of all things autumnal heading our way, I wanted to share our end of summer birthday bonanza - an Ice Cream Themed Birthday Party!

I pulled this together for my 12yr old daughter's big day.  It's been a challenging summer for us, so we wanted a day of celebration and fun for everyone that wouldn't make me stress out trying to over-craft an entire party...which I have done a number of times.  

You can find all my other DIY Parties HERE.

I used some free clip art, fonts and iPiccy editing to make this digital party invitation:

I found the ideal ice cream themed "party paper products in a box" set on Amazon which gave me most of the mainstay items in one fell swoop and was a real bargain at $28.  Of course it's "currently unavailable" now, but the brand was Blue Panda.

Ice cream cone shaped plates, matching napkins, cups and flatware for 24 people:

Dessert plates and plastic tablecloth were included too, plus an ice cream shaped birthday bunting, which was a nice detail for the table.  I reused a hot pink felt cut-out table runner leftover from our previous Sewing Themed Birthday Party.

The paper set even came with balloons and some nice matching gift bags and I also bought this cute little cardboard ice cream truck centerpiece to add a little more decor fun:

I got a pack of foam ice cream poppers to do double duty as party favors & decorations.  These were a big hit with all ages:

 The cake was done by our favorite local bakery, Sorella's.  I saw a round cake online that had ice cream cones on the sides with frosting "scoops" and thought that kind of design would be ideal, just made bigger as a sheet cake.  There's usually squabbling over the cake section with the most frosting, so this way everyone got it!

Fortunately I also had this cute ice cream-themed gift bag in my stash from a previous family birthday (saving party bags = win), to tie into our theme:

 My big DIY party contribution was making this ice cream truck piñata:

 It took a bit of planning to design, but it came together just as I hoped and was really inexpensive to make. We love having birthday piñatas, but I just can't see spending $20+ on a store bought one, only to beat the heck out of it and throw it out.  This one literally cost me $5 plus the candy inside!

I even added some last minute personalization to make it extra special:

To complete our tablescape (and hide a broken window that was being replaced a few days later) I got this ice cream parlor backdrop - also from Amazon.  I figured we could use it for some fun photoshoots and, with a 1yr old daughter added to our now large family birthday list, more parties down the road.  I flanked it with some of the party set balloons, which were a perfect color match:

Overall, we were able to have a fun styled party, but without all the expense and headaches they usually entail to pull together.  That made both mom, and the birthday girl, happy:)

Check out some of my other DIY Parties:

   

 

Creating a Wind in the Willows Birthday Party

 

It's been a while since we had a fun DIY'd birthday party to share and heaven knows we all could use more celebratory fun this year, so without further ado, here's our  

Wind in the Willows Birthday Party!

 

Our party theme was inspired by the stop motion animation Wind in the Willows film & tv series by Cosgrove Hall from the 1980s.  Both are based on the classic children's book of the same name by Kenneth Grahame.  We discovered this enchanting series at our local library when my bigger kids were small and fell in the love with it.  We bought all of them on dvd and the book & have been enjoying them ever since. 

 

This is one of the first shows we've let our little guy watch and he LOVES the characters Ratty, Mole, Badger and, most especially, the silly & outgoing Toad.  Since we haven't been able to do many things he enjoys out & about in the past year, thanks to the craziness of the outside world, bringing the imaginary world of Wind in the Willows to life seemed ideal for his 3rd birthday.

 

We are huge fans of the talents of Cosgrove Hall, so I want to be clear that everything I put together was for our personal use only.

 

I started by making a little digital invitation using the cover of one of the dvds & iPiccy:

 

Since there were no manufactured party supplies even remotely close in theme, I had to really put my thinking cap on to pull a design together.  

 

 

I found some forest path design plastic tablecloths on Amazon, which gave the perfect "Wild Wood" vibe.  As did some log print paper plates.  A wicker picnic basket we had in a closet came in handy as a party prop since picnic hampers are featured heavily in many of the adventures the animals go on:

 

I used some plastic grass sheets and a moss covered basket (from Hobby Lobby and Michaels) to add some dimension & texture to our party table.

 

I also found a few high quality still images from the show online.  I printed those on card stock and laminated them to make some character themed party decor.  Laminating them meant my little guy could keep them after for playtime, which he has really enjoyed.  

 

I lucked out big time when I remembered we had a plastic motorcar from a Victorian-themed Playmobil set and that it was green, so it looked just like Toad's.  Boop-boop!

 

 

Years ago I'd found a used Wind in the Willows board game on eBay and it came with these charming wooden game pieces.  They were great decorating additions too:

Our favorite local bakery, Sorella's, came through in creating this incredible cake, with an edible image of the beloved characters:

 My little guy's face lit up when he saw his favorite friends on it.  Of course he wanted Toad to be on his piece.  And then he insisted on trying Mole.  Everyone else loved eating up the buttercream leaves:

 This shirt was another one of my 11th hour craft brainwaves.  The idea only occurred to me the evening before his party.  I drew the Toad design and scanned it to make into a cut file to use with some heat transfer vinyl.  I whipped it together in next to no time and was feeling pretty pleased the morning of the party....

Semper Bufo is Latin for "Always Toad" which is Toad's motto.  I thought that would be fun on a shirt so he could wear his favorite character.  Except in my rush to make it I didn't think to do a spell check and the transfer I originally made said "Buffo", which my husband noticed was wrong as I was setting up the table.  Doh!!  I knew no one else in our family - especially my 3yr old - would even know that, but I couldn't leave it.  I had just enough black HTV left (and a single blank shirt in my stash), so a couple hours before the party I did a correct version.  Phew!

The one thing party thing I was most unsure about, but ultimately most pleased with, was my handmade Toad pillow.  There was no plush toy anywhere that resembled his beloved Cosgrove Hall Toad, so I spent some time looking at still images like these:

 

 Then drawing & drafting a pattern to create this version of Toad using materials I had on hand - some snake-skin print & solid chartreuse fleece fabric, a bit of faux leather and black felt:

  

I'm not the greatest illustrator, but I feel like he came out pretty well given I scrounged my stash to make him.  It was either a miracle from above or a sign my stash is out of control.  I may even share how I made him in a future tutorial.  To go full on Wind in the Willows, I snagged a few used picture books, circa the '80s, on eBay, so all his presents from us would be in theme too.  

 

The tough part, as both a mom & crafter, was that my little guy was overwhelmed with all the big, bright and action-packed gifts he got from everyone else.  So during present opening time he didn't pay much attention to Mr. Toad, or the shirt.  After, when things were quiet (and he wasn't hepped-up on birthday cake), he was cuddling with him and asked to have Toad in his bed with his other favorite softies.  Since then Toad holds a special place next to his blankie and he frequently asks us to "make him talk" by saying Toad's key phrases with it.  He's worn his shirt a bunch of times too, so I know he really enjoys them, which makes all the work worth it.   

We had so much fun with the party that we left all the decorations out for him to play with for a couple of weeks.  I may even do an "open road" or "on the riverbank" WITW celebration with them outside when some big renovations to our backyard are completed for summer.  In the meantime we've got some wonderful photos to remind us of his special day and hopefully helps us recapture it again in the future:)

DIY Beach Fun Birthday Party

Every year we try to do a fun outdoor party for our middle daughter's birthday since it's the only one out of five kids that is in the summer.  With all the 'rona related hassles, and being short on party planning & prepping time, it needed to be simple.  It was just for us and a few other extended family members.  She said she just wanted it to be water themed and left it to Mom here to put together. 

I started by throwing together a quick digital invitation with a few free clip art files 

and iPiccy:

I spent about 15 minutes planning a week ahead by shopping online & another 15 minutes to lay it all out just before things started (with my 2yr old playing outside so as not to yank it all apart before anyone saw it).  And despite the no frills approach, we had decent a beach party display:

I've gone all out in previous years with DIY-ing every little decorating detail, but if you don't have a lot of time or open budget, that just gets super stressful.  Keep It Simple was the mantra this time.  I found a set of paper plates, cups and napkins on Amazon that were perfectly themed:

My toddler is obsessed with beach balls so I used a few we had in his toy bin as decorations.  A little galvanized metal planter blended right in an was ideally size to hold the treat bags:

I had a yard of the sand print cotton fabric in my stash so it was perfect as a table runner:

We did some sandwich trays, coleslaw, potato salad & chips from a small local deli for the eats to keep food prep easy.  I barely have time to tidy up and get dressed so elaborate themed, hand prepped food is too time consuming!  I went for some easy, water themed, ready made snacks instead. Goldfish crackers & Swedish fish candies in some colorful bowls we already had that were perfect matches to her party supplies:

Part of our gift to her was this jumbo 10'x6' pool and the red, white & blue inflatable speaker in it so she can splash and soak while listening to her favorite songs.

And since there were teenage brothers & a cousin who we knew wouldn't be as excited about splashing in a wading pool with the smalls, we got a jumbo package of 420 water balloons and got all the squirt toys out so they could all get wet & wild and have fun.  Even the adults joined in.

 Normally we splurge on an elaborately decorated cake from a local bakery, but we kinda spent the cake budget on the pool instead, so we went with a basic sheet cake from the grocery store that was about 1/4 the price. I sprinkled on a bit of brown sugar for sand and pipped on a bit of blue frosting for some waves and added a few Swedish fish.  Adding in a couple of paper drink umbrellas to act as our beach umbrellas and some Happy Birthday shaped candles and the cake was good to go.  

Our indoor table centerpiece, a shark shaped piñata I got from Hobby Lobby, was also part of the festivities.  

Even our little guy got in on the action since he'd napped through her previous two birthdays and not had the piñata experience before:

And for the sunblock police (because there's always someone on the internet who feels compelled make a judgement & comment on things like this), he wore a sunhat & rash guard all day and was only without them for the 30 seconds he hit the piñata so he could see and swing the bat freely.

All in all it was really fun and the birthday girl was super pleased.  For the first time in 11 years we didn't have a day of rain or sweltering 90+ degree weather either, so it was a real blessing.  Everyone had a blast and it felt so good to have one thing seem normal this summer.  It's hard to believe it's now September and summer is winding down, but we got to wrap it up with some good water filled fun!