A couple of weeks ago I shared a few pics from my son’s Shark Birthday Party. We stuck to our budget, kept the activities to a minimum and everyone, especially the birthday boy, had a great time! Today I’m sharing more birthday party pics, a couple of projects like a DIY Upgraded Piñata, and DIY Birthday Kid T-Shirt, and fun Birthday Printables from Etsy –these can add a personal touch to your kid’s party, while keeping your wallet mostly in tact.
Easy and Budget Friendly Birthday Party
While planning for this party I was really consciensious about staying within the budget, but as a FT working Mom and Blogger, I needed to keep the work to a minimum too. I decided to get myself a Custom Printables Package from Harken Studio on Etsy. April had the
exact theme I was looking for in mind when she created this
Customized Birthday Printables
The printables really dressed up our gazeebo!
I love the different shades of blue combined with orange in these water bottle labels.
I was able to customize them to say anything I wanted!
I decided to use what should be part of the banner in other areas. This is a regular jug of cheese balls from Target. A little Mod Podge brushed on the back held the chevron shark printable nicely in place (you can use craft glue too), and covered up the brand logo.
Since this is a shark themed party, we had a “Bites” banner over the food table. Why not get creative with the printables? I re-printed letters from the “Happy Birthday Chase” banner to make this sign. Then I hand cut the ‘bite’ marks–looks like our friendly shark got to it first!
*Visit Harken Studio on Etsy and Facebook!*
I made these incredibly easy, and inexpensive poms as an alternative to traditional balloons. They last forever and they are pennies in comparison. Re-purpose them to decorate your child’s room or playroom!
See the full DIY Party Poms tutorial here.
DIY Birthday Kid T-Shirt
Do you have a Cricut Explore yet? As you may already know, I recently got my hands on one and have been using it like mad! One of my favorite projects was this T-Shirt I designed for my goober to wear on his big day. I used a t-shirt from the dollar store, iron-on vinyl, and a shark image from the Cricut Design Space software to create this cute tee. He loves sharks so he can wear this one year round. By the way, I washed the shirt and the iron-on has held up beautifully!
Find a full tutorial on how to use iron-on vinyl here.
Upgrade a Store Bought Piñata
I searched high and low for a shark themed piñata large enough to accommodate a 35 kid party to no avail. So I did the next best thing. I bought a generic piñata, and upgraded it!
There is nothing wrong with this one per se, but it’s nothing special. However it was the right size so I cut out a few images on large cardstock with my Cricut Explore, and made it just right.
For continuity I used the same shark image and font as on the t-shirt, just larger. I also cut out some waves, and small fish. All of these images were found on their Design Space software!
The cardstock was glued on with Mod Podge, and I went over the whole thing a couple of times with Mod Podge Sparkle to make it more fun.
I replaced the yellow and red streamers with white and green to match the party decor.
The poor piñata was beat half to death! This was the only piece left on the ground after the kids were done with it!
Overall he had a super fun shark birthday party, and this momma was able to get creative while saving some time and cash in the process. Sounds like a win-win to me!
Thank you for checking out my little guy’s birthday party, I hope you were inspired!
Check out more party details in Shark Birthday Party Part 1!
So tell me, what do you do to save time and money when planning a party?
katie says
Ahhh Love everything about this party. Never thought to customize an already constructed (ugly) pinata! Love it!
Barbara @ Chase the Star says
Thanks Katie!