Birthdays, Carter, Carter's progress, Family, Friends, HUNTER, CARTER & CHLOE, Parties, Playdates CARTER’S 1ST BIRTHDAY: THE DIY DECOR 11 August 2013

So since Carter couldn’t walk properly (unassisted) for his 1st birthday party, I decided to re-purpose his walker into a Walker-mobil! That way, I thought he’d be perfectly on-theme as he trundled around the party. This only semi worked, because whilst he was very happy zooming around with his walker at the start of the party, it was totally neglected by him during the party because he was too busy super-gluing himself to myself or my Dad.

On the plus side, other kids had fun pushing it around during the party, so at least it didn’t go to waste!

Cut-out words mounted on cardboard and double-sided taped to the bottom of the walker. Tied red & blue ribbons to the handle as well, just for fun!

 

This centerpiece below was what I considered my piece de resistance. It was SO hard to do, and took SO long!! But to be honest, it kinda got ‘lost’ among all the other decor, so it wasn’t really noticed 🙁 

I got a long piece of curved styrofoam, and covered it with gold wrapping paper. Then, I stuck in superhero and wording cutouts (mounted on long sticks), as well as chupa chups. Now those were the KILLER.

The centerpiece

 

So yeah, those chupa chups? Each of them had a mini cape, plus a mask! Look reaaalllyyy closely at the picture below and you’ll see them. I made a mistake and printed those out about 50% smaller, so they were horrifically difficult to cut out, not to mention super fiddly to glue on.

On top of all that, NOBODY noticed them anyway!! Arggghhhh…. My poor superhero chupa chups. No recognition for them whatsoever 😉

Superhero chupa chups, complete with cape and mask

 

The HAPPY BIRTHDAY flag bunting actually took awhile too, as Chris, his Dad and I cut them out on paper, then cut out cardboard backing to mount them onto, then threaded gold elastic string. But I LOVED LOVED LOVED the look.

Psssstttttt!! Did you notice in the pic below that “D” and “A” are both blue? I didn’t quite plan the lettering, hence the mistake. Again, no one at the party noticed, so it didn’t matter 😉

Happy Birthday flag bunting

 

Then I simply printed out nice backgrounds on A4 sheets of paper, cut them out (using the above Happy Birthday lettering as a template), and mounted on cardboard. Instant theme bunting! I thought they were cute 🙂

Bunting

 

We also made big cut-outs words on paper, then mounted them on cardboard and stuck sticks onto the back.

And I made 2 speech bubbles, laminated them and stuck them on sticks too. The idea was that people could use a whiteboard marker to write stuff on them, to take pics! But errrr… everyone was too busy chasing their kids around and/or eating and swimming, to take photos at the photobooth!!

Photobooth props

 

Props stuck into a cylinder (laminated paper that I printed out the city skyline onto). I filled the cylinder up with rice so the sticks could be pulled in and out easily.

 

And the superhero cut-outs. There were maybe 100 or so of these, in varying sizes. They were a real b!tch to do! But worth it as we could slap them all around the clubhouse, stick them on sticks and into food, and decorate the cake table etc etc. And since the theme of the party was centered around these guys, I thought they were critical.

Lots of people noticed how cute the superheroes were, and I thought so too. Since it’s a 1st birthday party, I didn’t want the ‘proper’ superheroes since their official merchandise is actually quite dark coloured and not cutesy at all. So these worked perfectly – I got the digital images on Etsy!

Superheroes

 

I also pasted a bunch of cut-outs onto straws, meant to be used with the paper cups that I also decorated. But… errrr.. I left them all on the cake table and forgot to take them outside to the catering table, so they didn’t get used! But I ended up giving them away as “take home presents”, so it worked 🙂

Superhero straws

 

Superhero cups

 

And see the little balls lined up on the table below??

Rice-filled stress balls

 

Those were our super hero stress balls! We wrapped 1 cup of rice in clingfilm, then stuffed it into a balloon (with the end cut off), and used another balloon (also with end cut off) to wrap over the other end. Then I drew on a little face.

Ta daaaa!

Instant rice-filled stress balls.

They’re pretty easy to make, very cheap to buy the materials, and are a cute “take home present” for the kids.

The guys busy making the rice-filled stress balls

 

The party favors? I made the decision to not give out a bag of candy and random little presents, and sink all the money into ONE item – a superhero cape. I figured it’d be the most practical gift that can be reused for years, and would come in handy should any kind not have a cape at the party!

So I splurged and bought these capes on Etsy, and got them shipped from the USA to Singapore. I bought red & blue takeaway boxes and stuffed the capes into them, as well as a matching glitter paper mask, a little bottle of bubbles to blow, and a Japanese marshmallow.

The boxes were tied up with red and blue ribbon, and I stuck on more superhero cutout signs. Each box was personalised with a Superhero ID Card with their name and super power!

I was pretty chuffed with how the party boxes turned out, because I felt they were a lot more personalised than the norm, and I was proud of how much effort went into these. Frankly though, not sure if I’d do this much again for a subsequent birthday party!

The party favour boxes, filled with a handmade superhero cape, glitter mask, bubbles and marshmallow

 

And Carter was so indulged in a whole bunch of super thoughtful presents from his friends!! He scored lots of adorable clothes, plus loads of fun toys – a real treat for him since almost all of his toys are 2nd hand from Hunter.

I am opening them very slowly, one by one… so he gets to fully enjoy each one before the excitement of opening a new one!

“All for meeeee??”

 

Family capes! Now we can moonlight as superheroes at night

 

We had a SUPER fun party!! It was heaps of effort cos of the DIY stuff, but I’d do it all over again because I wanted his 1st birthday party to be special.

He is a very blessed boy to have such indulgent and adoring relatives, and caring friends! Next year, he’s expected to say “thank you” properly to everyone that attends his party 😉

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, my precious littlest baby!!!! To many, many more wonderful celebrations 🙂

 

 

 

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Hi Beverly ! Amazing decor you have!!!
May i know where you bought the red and blue takeaway boxes? Thanks

Hi Beverly, your party decor and DIY stuff looked amazing! May I know where did you get those small plain bottles of bubbles from? Thanks!

Your DIY decor was super cute! Well done! Man, do I know how it feels when folks don’t notice the little touches. But it was fun for me and I take lots of pics to make up for it 🙂

I think the two cat girls noticed EVERYTHING especially the Chocs and chuppa chups! You have no idea how stressed Mary Rizkalla and I were in trying to keep those girls away from it!

The props are really amazing! I love the chuppa chups! And the personalized IDs with the party favours! =)

I quite liked the personalised IDs too.. I realise it’s quite fun having personalised party favours! Think I might do that in future 😛

oh nooo, i didn’t notice the chupa chups and they took so much effort!! sorrrrrry!

i really like the photobooth props. it’s still intact at home. 😉

i noticed about the chupa chups! i even took a photo on my phone. hahah, imma gonna post it on Instagram and hashtag it. hee 😀

OMG! Your DIY stuff look so good, it is like events company’s standard! Those superheroes cut-outs are sooooo….. cute!

omg bev!! im so sorry!! we didn’t notice half of the things you made!!! i just told daniel you made the superhero stress balls (he was juggling them!) and he was amazed!!

top effort, mum!! 🙂