Guess who's turning three?

My Mister! haha

His party is this weekend. We only invited a few close friends and family b/c it felt right for him this time around.

I wanted to see how many things I could make for his birthday with materials I already had at home, or finding some cheaper ways to get my items made. I think I found some solutions.

First, we decided to have it off campus...or at Chuck E Cheese's instead of at our house. This made the decoration budget much smaller since CEC has a table set up w/ balloons, etc. I will be bringing a few things but not nearly as much, which does save us some $.

Next, I noticed on my Street Signs Cricut cartridge, that I could make cute little street signs. I then had a major "AHA" moment to use the signs as nametags to attach to each of the bags that the kids will receive for favors. They turned out cute.

Over mid-winter break, I took some time to scan Etsy sites to find ideas I could easily copy. I found many but narrowed it down to my favorites. B/c we are members of AAA, we can order maps for free. Dj ordered a couple for me and then we found some old ones up in the cupboard we weren't using. I had some ribbon I wasn't using, so used that to tie around the top. I still have plenty of maps left to continue wrapping a few smaller favors.

Next, I wanted to make a centerpiece that I could attach a balloon to. I saw this cool idea on someone's site and the Cars-themed centerpiece was SUPER expensive in my opinion, so I began my Etsy search yet again. I found a lady on the site who sold Cars die cuts for $2 each...this was a bargain to me b/c when I use my character cartridges, it takes a lot of different kinds of paper and time to put the layers together, so time was money. I let Baylen pick out the 4 cars he wanted and waited for them to arrive. They were big and wonderful. Then, I went to Party City and found a plastic Cars bucket for $2.99. I already had tape, dowels, paper stuffing, and the floral styrofoam on hand...voila: for $9, I made this cute centerpiece. The lady on Etsy was selling it for over $25. Um no.

I found another cute idea using water bottle labels, so I searched some blogs until I found a bottle label template. I switched all of the info/colors/pictures and made my own for free. I had cardstock on hand and a color printer. Done.

The kids will each receive a favor box--I just bought those at Party City...they are cheap and can't fit much inside, so we also bought $1 gift bags in red, black, and white to add a few more things that are bigger.

Favors...I think we have found some cute favors and this time, it won't take me forever to make them all.
-Hot Wheels are cheap--under a $1 a piece at Target. SOLD.
-Cars kazoos found in the $1 aisle at Michael's. SOLD.
-Cars flying airplane thingys in the $1 aisle at Michael's. SOLD.
-Chocolate Dipped Oreo Cookie Suckers...cute & easy...cheapest at Target and then already had some candy left over to melt. Can't wait to make more of these on Thursday night.
-Cars Gummy Snacks...easy--already had some we just purchased for our own kids to snack on
-Cars yo-yos: Found at Michael's in the $1 aisle...SOLD.
-Clearance Pet Shop toy for the girl: $1.75 for TWO pets...SOLD.

Did you all know Michael's had a great dollar aisle? So does Target, Party City & JoAnn's. Always fun to see what kind of cute things you can find that fit with your party theme and are still cute to add to a favor bag.
-a couple other little things inside...we're good to go.

The biggest thing I splurged on this year: His cake. A lady is making it for us this year. I found her online, so I am hoping it will work out. She is making a cute 3-D cake in the shape of Lightning. I am excited to see it.

Auction donations

I love donating to auctions. It's so much fun to try and come up with or create a fun set of bows or a theme. This is for the D.H. Auction for my high school PTSA. I chose a green, pink, black, orange theme for this set. They turned out cute. I also tried out a new bow design...see the pretty multi-colored double-layered flower with the jeweled center in the pics.

I have our daycare auction to donate to in April. I have two cute ideas for that one too..something I haven't done yet. :)

Favors for the girls...

Here are some detailed pics of the favors for the girls. You saw the flip flops in a previous post. An old friend from ISU made the Hawaiian flower tags that say, "Aloha, thanks for coming!" and I made an initial tag that matched the birthday banner w/ my Cricut.

Birthday stuff..

i finished the birthday banner for bee...now that i have the bigger cricut, i can do so much more with it. next weekend we'll be having a big luau!

Flip Flops for the girls :)

These are 3 pairs of flip flops I have made so far for the girls for Brynn's bday party. It's a Hawaiian theme, so of course, flip flops are a great little party favor and really inexpensive to make. I bought these flip flops for under $2 each. :) I would love to make more pairs to match more of Brynn's outfits or even to match a birthday gift for some of Brynn's friends near and far. :)

I just wish I could think of something cool to make for the boys but so far, no ideas are crossing my mind. Poor boys!

Hawaiian Invites

This is one version of the Hawaiian bday party invites I've been making for Brynn's 4th bday. I have another version that looks similar, except the middle of the flower has a rhinestone instead of a brad. I think both look cute, and they were cheaper than a set of 8 at the party store. This is the first time I've made invites myself. The first year, I didn't send any out. The second year, I ordered them from apple.com. The third year, we bought Hello Kitty ones from the store, and this year, I did purchase some cute flip flop ones from the party store, but after searching online for awhile, I finally found one I could make and had all of the materials (w/ the exception of the Hawaiian paper) on hand. Luckily, at JoAnn's this week, paper was 5 for $1. SCORE! While I have enjoyed putting them together, I am sure I could figure out a way to make them even cuter, but I keep telling myself that people throw them away. Thus, this will be fine. Brynn has been looking at them and her eyes just light up. She is so excited for her party in about a month. it's hard to believe this little girl is almost 4.

Craftin' Away

I have been busy putting together a large # of bows because I am going to be a part of my very first craft show in December. I am SO excited but also nervous. How do I set up shop? The table will be provided and I'll borrow Dj's table cloth he takes w/ him to computer shows. I think I will only accept cash for this first show. I have also ordered a bunch of those white plastic backings to attach my bows onto so they all look the same. I think I need to get a stamp and stamp the backs of all of them or a sticker or something w/ my business name and etsy site.