CHAMPAGNE CUPCAKES

How impressed would your guests be if you served them champagne cupcakes! If you’re looking for a great recipe check this one out from Sprinkle Bakes, and for the easy version, take a look at what Betty Crocker has baked up.

BLACK AND WHITE DAMASK

An easy way to make a statement and add some style, is to use black and white damask. How about buying some cheap black and white damask fabric and using it as a table cloth, a table runner, or as part of a backdrop…

Plus, add these free damask printables to finish off the look.

GOLD AND SILVER

Add a few pieces of gold and silver to pump up the glam and to let people know that this is no small celebration (even if it is a small celebration ).

RETRO ELEMENTS

Adding tuxedos and top hats will add a touch of sophistication and whimsy to your party.

Here are some free retro printables that will add a festive 1920′s feel to your party.

FREE PRINTABLE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION CARDS

How about asking your guests to write down their New Year’s resolutions? Just print these cards out and pass them around. Good conversation starter, don’t you think?

To get more ideas and inspiration, check out these great New Year’s parties on our site and these free printable collections…

Ooh la la! I saw Heather L’s Pink Parisian Patisserie Party and I was swooning — all that pink, all those treats, all those fluffy pom poms!

Then I noticed the budget… $75! Can’t be done, I thought. But I was proven wrong. Here’s how Heather pulled it off…

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I LOVE to throw a party!  I have so many ideas running through my head, it can get overwhelming at times.  However, I get a reality check every time I think about actually implementing all of my crazy plans when I remember the “B” word – BUDGET. 

As a stay at home mom of five, with a hardworking husband who has recently started his own business, I feel that it is my job to keep a very strict budget when it comes to party planning – but still make those in my life feel special and spoiled!  Over time, I’ve learned a few tips and tricks for creating a fabulous party on a budget.  Here are a few ways I saved money but still managed to get the look of a more extravagant party.

TIP 1

 Use what you have, borrow what you don’t!  This is my favorite tip, and I cannot stress this enough.  For this particular party, my daughter wanted a cupcake/bakery theme.  As I was thinking of ideas for the party, I realized that a French bakery theme would be cute – especially since my daughters’ shared bathroom is decorated in a pink/black Parisian theme. 

I simply borrowed some items from their bathroom – like the metal Eiffel tower, a small painting, a cute poodle, and much more!  I also pulled many things from both daughters’ rooms.  If it was pink or black, I grabbed it =) 

Eiffel Tower borrowed from her daughters

Stuffed poodle borrowed from her daughters

I had a ton of tulle on hand (that I have kept since my 12 year old daughter’s fourth birthday!) so I used tulle on everything.  For NO money, I had instant party décor.  As you are deciding on a theme, think about what you have in your house that matches your colors – maybe there is a red bucket, a cute aqua shelf, or a pink bird cage that would look just PERFECT dressed up for your party.  Additionally, borrow what you can – for my Paris party, I borrowed several serving plates/platters as well as both tablecloths I used. 

TIP 2

Don’t plan your party during a meal time.  I purposely planned our party for 2:00 – 4:00 pm.  I knew that I couldn’t afford to serve a huge spread of food, so I kept it light and simple – and it was perfect for little tummies! 

I served cupcakes (baked at home using boxed mix and canned frosting that I piped on to look more “professional”), sugar cookies I baked and decorated myself, marshmallow pops (I already had the marshmallows and just purchased pink candy melts with a coupon), a little candy, and some grapes and pretzels to balance out all the sweet stuff.  I already had the grapes and pretzels on hand for my kids’ lunches, so I only had to purchase a few items.  Our drinks were inexpensive “Shirley Temples” made with Sprite and grenadine. 

Homemade sugar cookies

Homemade marshmallow pops

The kids had plenty to eat and most even took some treats home with them.  If I had served lunch, I would have busted my budget for sure.

TIP 3

Start planning early.  I always start planning my parties well in advance.  One reason for this is that I just can’t help myself – I’m always looking forward to the next party =) 

The main reason, though, is so I can start looking for items that are deeply discounted that go with my theme.  You can find cute buckets, frames, serving pieces, scrapbook paper/supplies, etc. on major clearance at craft stores if you know what you are looking for.  It might be on sale six months before your party, but if you know your theme ahead of time you can purchase it at a great price.

TIP 4

Use party printables (reasonably priced ones).  In my opinion, cute party printables really do make your party.  However, you have to factor in the cost of purchasing them as well as printing them.  If you purchase a very expensive party printable package and then go to the office supply store to get it printed (or use up all of your own very expensive ink!), you might be shocked at how much of your budget is gone.  Shop around, and find a reasonably priced printable package.

Inexpensive printables

I was able to find a great one for my Paris party for only $10!  Even if you can only afford to get one printable item, such as cupcake toppers/party circles, print a bunch of them and use them everywhere.  Other than cupcakes, you can use them as favor tags, to dress up store bought party hats, or even glue them to ribbons and have them hanging from your chandelier.  For my Paris party, my very talented mom embellished the already adorable banner that I printed, and it looked like a million bucks!

Embellished banner

TIP 5

Do it yourself.  People tell me all the time that they “can’t” make things, or they “aren’t crafty.”  Well, let me tell you – if you have a small budget, you’ll figure it out quickly =) 

Every single party I do, I make most of the decorations.  There are SO many tutorials out there in blog land – just Google what you are looking for and you are sure to find instructions on how to make it.  Everything might not be perfect, but my kids don’t care – and they are SO proud to tell their friends, “My mom made that!” 

For this party, I wanted a beautiful floral arrangement for my front door, and while I do consider myself pretty crafty, I am NO floral arranger – at all!  But, I was determined, so I purchased five bunches of flowers at the Dollar Tree and played around with them in a door bucket I already had until I achieved the look I liked.  I tied a little ribbon and tulle around it, stuck in a party sign (and a cute little poodle) and voila! I can only imagine how much I would have paid a professional to design that bucket for me.  Certainly more than the $5 it cost me =)

Home made flower arrangement to welcome the guests

Home made hair flower party favors

Here is the breakdown of the cost of my party.  (My mom purchased the adorable little macarons from Trader Joe’s as well as some of the candy):

• Printables/printing – $15
• Paper goods – $12
• French cupcake tags (used as party décor) – $4
• Flowers (from Dollar Tree – five bunches) – $5
• Candy – $6
• Poodles (party favors – purchased from Oriental Trading) – $15
• Craft supplies – $9 (I already had many supplies on hand, such as ribbon, glue, tulle, rhinestones, etc.)
• Baking supplies – $8 (had some on hand, only needed to purchase candy melts and some extra canned icing)

Total spent:  $74

Just amazing, Heather! Thank for sharing all your smart tips. It shows that with a little ingenuity, you can add lots of special touches without spending a fortune.

If you haven’t already, check out the rest of Heather’s chic party.

I’m always impressed by people who can throw amazing parties on the tiniest of budgets. I was a fan of Melissa N’s Baseball BBQ when I first saw it, but then when I read she put it together for $100, I had to know more.

So here are Melissa’s top 5 tips for how she saved money throwing her Baseball BBQ…

1.  REUSE – I use items over and over in different ways until they look too beaten up.  I use a lot of different containers and replace the tags on them or add ribbons depending on the theme or colors.

One can of chalkboard paint has gotten me through 5 parties so far!  I use them for signs and all sorts of decor!  The scoreboard for the baseball party is being reused for a 7th birthday party… just using some chalkboard paint to cover the last sign. (I use chalkboard markers on the boards and they tend to not all come off that easily, so I like to repaint them.)

2.  RECYCLE – I save almost all glass jars and large plastic containers to use for parties. Just clean them out and put them into a box for future use.  I also find a lot of glassware at garage sales.  I used what baseballs we had at the house to make the glass jar centerpiece for the baseball party. Cost nothing!

The green “turf” on the table was used at our Easter Egg Hunt and made a great covering for the baseball party also!  Cost was $8 and so far I have recycled it through two parties!

3.  DOLLAR TREE – Amazing what you can do with dollar store items!

4.  BUY ON CLEARANCE – Rummage through the clearance bins and dollar bins at Target, Party City, Walmart and more. I always buy anything in primary colors because they can always be altered with paint and other crafty items.

The striped table clothes that you see on the tables and on the main baseball table were purchased at Target on sale, and I am reusing them for 3 more up coming parties!  Big savings there!

5.  RESEARCH way a head of time – I always use the Internet for research beforehand and using FREE printable (making sure to give credit back to the original blog or website).

Thinking outside the box, and being creative with food also, the s’more pops were a big hit and easy and very economical to make!

Thank you, Melissa, for these helpful money-saving ideas! My two biggest takeaways from this post are… Reuse anything and everything, and chalkboard paint is your friend.

Take a look at all the fabulous parties Melissa has added to our site. She is definitely an entertaining expert!

Norene’s 4th of July Party

Laura’s Americana Luau

Magnolia Creative Co’s Budget Friendly Patriotic Party

Lindsey M’s Little Firecracker’s 4th of July Riverside Soiree

Molly E’s Celebrate our Independence!

Need more ideas? Take a look at all our July 4th parties. And if you need free July 4th party printables, we’ve got you covered with four different printable collections.

Pinwheel Lane Parties creates custom party decorations like banners, cupcake toppers, favor tags and bags — all with serious flair!

And no need to print them out and assemble them yourself. They do all the work for you and send you the finished product in the mail. Plus they will customize orders to fit your party needs.

Look at how cute these party packages are…

To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is “like” Pinwheel Lane Parties on Facebook, then come back here and leave a comment that you did just that.

Thank you, gals, for doing this wonderful giveaway with us!

We’ll pick the winner at random on Thursday, June 30th at 10:00PM (PST).  Any entries after that won’t be considered, sorry.  We will use random.org to generate our winner and will notify you by email.

We have been seeing some fantastic Lego parties on our main site. Because Legos create infinite possibilities, so do these parties. Plus this is a theme that works great for boys of all ages.

I’m featuring some of my favorite elements from these parties. Click on the link or party photo to see the party the photos came from.

Lisa M’s Lego Build a Birthday

Welcome sign

Mikie M’s Lego 5th Birthday

Invitation

Lego chocolates

Make your own pizzas

Favor bags

Photo used for thank you cards

Stephanie S’s Lego Party

Invitation

Dessert table

Birthday boy's name spelled out in Legos

How about this cake?

Malu Boutique’s Albert’s 7th Birthday

Welcome sign

Cake

Lego character cupcake toppers

Lego sign

Lego cookies

Shelley K’s Lego Star Wars Birthday Party

Invitation

Favors

Lego Star Wars cupcake toppers

Funny coffee cups

Melissa M’s Lego Party

Guest book

Backdrop

Personalized Lego aprons

Pinata"

Skye H’s JT’s 10th Birthday Party

Invitation

Favors

Star Wars Lego signs

Pretty amazing and this isn’t all. Check out all the awesome Lego parties on our main site.

I had to ask  if she’d put together a tutorial on how she made them. Look how fresh and exciting they are!

Well, Kristy so kindly said yes, so without further ado, take it away my uber-talented party friend…

Tissue tassels and tassels in general will be taking over the party world. Trust me.

I  crush hard on the charm of Confetti System. Love and Adore. Seriously + Ridiculously.

Alas, true love comes at a high price. Mama cannot afford to bedazzle her deck with the fabulosity of authentic Confetti System-so she set out to create a similar look and feel of it all. Not that my junk could ever be in the Confetti Class-I was just inspired beyond to create some cute.

I created a passel of tassels for my little chimp’s Mario Kart Mustache Mania Rave. Super easy, inexpensive and so much fun + festive impact.

Supplies

• Cutting mat
• Tissue paper (you can use any tissue paper, metallics,
  cello, fleece, etc.)
• Rotary cutter
• Scissors (if you do not have a rotary cutter)
• Tape
• Twine or string
• Rope or ribbon to string tassels on

Step 1 - For ease, I started with a square size, 20 inches by 20 inches, but you can make these any size or varied sizes.

Step 2 - Cut the 20″ x 20″ paper in half so you will have two sheets of 20″ x 10.”

Step 3 - Stack the two sheets on top of each other. The 20 inch side should be horizontal to you. I place some kind of marker up top so I do not cut too far. You need to leave about an inch or so up top. I used a junky pencil for photo purposes. Once you are a pro, you can ditch the marker – you will be able to gauge when to stop.

Step 4 - Take your rotary cutter and cut strips about 1/2 inch wide up to the marker spot. Do this the entire length of the tissue. You are cutting through both pieces of tissue stacked on top of each other. If you are not using a rotary cutter, do the same with your scissors. Much easier with a rotary, but you can use scissors in a pinch.

Step 5 - Does not matter if you goof and make a wider or narrower strip. No one will notice. More charming anyway. You could also probably do more than two sheets at a time with a rotary, I just used two to keep it contained.

Step 6 –  Separate the two layers you just cut.

Step 7 - Take one of the layers and now turn it vertically to you.

Step 8 – Fold in half.

Step 9 - Fold in half again.

Step 10 - Now you will start at the end closest to you and fold in 1/4-1/2 inch section. If you try to roll or twist, the tassels with get all tangled.

Step 11 - Next, you can roll the end a little and secure with tape wrapped around the center.

Step 12 - Cut string or twine into 8″ or so sections.

Step 13 - Wrap around center of base several times. Leave twine of each side. This is how you will tie to attach to garland rope or ribbon.

Step 14 - Secure tassels to rope or ribbon or you could add them to a stick. Hang them independently, bunch them, etc.

There you go! Tissue tassel cuteness!

For this tissue tassel mini cake bunting, I used the exact same technique-just tiny:)

I will be using this adorableness for the 4th of July:)

Thank you, Kristy! And I agree with you that we will no doubt be seeing many more tissue tassels around the party blogosphere.

To see all of Kristy’s handmade party goods and get more fabulous party ideas, take a look at her blog, The Purple Pug.  And while you’re at it, take a look at the insanely creative parties Kirsty has added to Catch My Party.

The collection includes: invitations, party circles, tented cards, drink straw flags, favor tags, sparkler holders with directions (cool, right?!), matchbox covers, and my favorite part… a “Let Freedom Ring” banner.

Invitation

Party circles

Tented cards

Tags for drink straws

Favor tags

Sparkler holder with directions

Matchbox covers

"Let Freedom Ring" banner

Download the high resolution files for printing:

• Invitation
• Party circles
• Tented cards
• Tags for drink straws
• Favor tags
• Sparkler holder
• Matchbox covers
• “Let Freedom Ring” banner

Thank you, Brady, for this patriotic collection!  To learn more about Brady, please check out 9 to 5 Mom.

If you use these for your July 4th party, please send photos to jillian (at) catchmyparty.com, so I can show off what you do.

Jamie said, “It turned out cute for our table decorations.  Now it’s in my daughters room for fun.”

Thank you so much, Jamie, for sending this in so I can show it off. Looks amazing!

If you make one of our DIYs, please send photos to jillian (at) catchmyparty.com. I’d love to post them!

I saw the How Does She tutorial for a balloon wreath. It was adorable and figured it would be the perfect addition to my bright, art party decor. I made the wreath then started planning out the rest of the decor and realized I didn’t have anywhere to hang it. I loved the balloons and wanted to use them, so I came up with making them in a topiary to use on each end of the food table. Here is how you make it:

Supplies

• One 6″ Terracotta pot or some other container
• One Styrofoam block (cut to fit inside the container)
• One 5″ Styrofoam ball
• One 18″ wooden dowel (mine was longer and I had my husband cut it down to this size)
• Two packs of greening pins. You really use about 1.5 packs but it’s better to have more and not need them than be short.
• 2 packs of small (around 2.25″) multi colored balloons (around 72 qty)
• 2 packs of larger (around 3″) multi colored balloons (around 72 qty)
• 1 pack of pipe cleaners cut in half
• 1 pack of shredded tissue paper
• Pencil

Cut your styrofoam block to fit inside the terracotta pot. Slide the dowel through the block and then into the ball to form the topiary shape.

Next it’s time to add the balloons to the styrofoam ball. I tied one of the smaller balloons around the greening pin (yellow balloon) to help hide it. Behind the yellow balloon I placed one or two of the larger balloons. Push the greening pin into the ball. Do this over and over until the entire ball is covered in balloons.

To add extra texture cut the pipe cleaners in half. Wrap one end around the greening pin to hide the edge. Wrap the other end around a pencil or paintbrush. Pull the pipe cleaner off and stretch it out into the coil shape. Add these sparingly around the ball. You can also add balloons behind the pipe cleaner like in step 3. Continue covering the entire ball with balloons and pipe cleaners.

10. For added decoration tie some ribbon around the dowel at the base of the styrofoam ball.

11. To cover your styrofoam block add the shredded tissue on top of it and around the dowel.

12. Congratulations, you are done! These topiaries make great additions to any table because you can change them up by using different colored balloons to match a theme or holiday, paint the dowel and use interesting ribbons, or change up the containers. You can also just make the ball and hang them from a chandelier or the ceiling using coordinating ribbon. Have fun!

Emily, thank you. What an ingenious idea!

To learn more about Emily and her company, Magnolia Creative Co., which sells party and event invitations, stationery items, and hand painted ceramic and canvas gifts, take a look at her website and Etsy shop.

(Do you have a DIY project from one of your parties that you’d like to share?  Please email me at jillian@catchmyparty.com.  I’d love to show it off!)