Rebekah from Twinkle and Twine, put together this easy tutorial, so thank you, Rebekah!

Here are the materials you need (not a lot):

Check out the whole tutorial here. They’re so easy to make, you still have time before Christmas.

To learn more about Rebekah and see all of her great tutorials, check out Twinkle and Twine.

So what are my unexpected details?

Well, first my gorgeous mermaid printables from Love the Day. This is the first time I’m using party printables and so far I’m loving the whole experience.  If I want more decorations, I just press “print.” How cool is that?

My second detail is my cupcake toppers from Two Sugar Babies. I’ve never seen or tasted fondant cupcake toppers before and I bet most of my guests haven’t either, so I can’t wait to see their reaction. Plus Charynn designed a special 3-D mermaid topper for my daughter’s cupcake. I promise you, she’s going to go nuts!

My third detail is my photo booth with props.  Kelli from The Paper Dolls Shoppe designed these adorable photo booth printable lips and mustaches that we’re giving away for FREE. Again, I bet most of my guests have never seen this before, so I’m curious to see how it goes over. Four-year-olds can be pretty unpredictable, therefore this might be an exercise in letting go.

And finally, the party favors, which are a very important detail to my daughter.  She wanted to give her friends something special, and I didn’t want to give them sweets because of the possible wrath of the other mothers.  So I found these cute mermaid and pirate Shrinky Dinks for half off…

…and wrapped them up pretty with what else… my printables!! What do you think?

My last detail is my two balloon bouquets from  Balloon Celebrations. Cyndy is definitely helping me out here. I don’t think I could afford them otherwise, so a big thank you to you, Cyndy!

There you have it. Budgets are hard, but most of us have to deal with them. And at the end of the day, I really only have to please one person – my daughter. (Okay two people, my husband when the Visa bill comes.)

If you have similar stories, or tips on how you saved money throwing a party, or  special details you added to make your party memorable, I’d love to hear them.

And as I’ve said before, wish me luck today… and of course I’ll be sharing how it all went down.

So in honor of good weather, here are some of my favorite pool party ideas from Etsy.

First, an invitation from Lilly Mae Designs.

Next a banner from IE Creations.

Some DIY printable pool party decorations from Paper and Cake.

Pool party cupcake toppers from Toadally Cute Products.

And to make your cupcakes even more decadent, how about some fondant cupcake toppers from Kids Cakes.

A large galvanized tub to keep your drinks cool from brodyandma.

And so no one mixes up their drink cups, here are some chalkboard tumblers from Party Bzz.

Some wooden boats to decorate your pool from duckduckgoosetoys.

And to add a little excitement and fragrance to your party, how about these fizzy pool bombs from Les Treasure.

And finally, so no one goes home empty-handed, some flip flop cookie favors from Whimsical Originals DB.

And shouldn’t the kids get something extra?  Personalized beach pails from Bumble Bee Lane.

Stay cool and happy swimming!