Seaside & Stories Birthday Party Theme

 Hello! I'd like to share Seaside & Stories birthday party from three years ago. 

The balloons came from Dollar Tree (I think), and I painted the ocean-themed pictures with watercolors, then used a Sharpie or gel ink pen to add details on top. I did the same for the food labels as well. The treats included "Sea Snails" for cinnamon buns and "Sand Dollars" for Nilla cookies. The poster was made with that same pen and recycled book pages. This theme was actually inspired by a book I found at a thrift store and love, titled "A Child of Books" by Oliver Jeffers. The vases, plants, and dishes were all things I had on hand. For the book page ocean, I hot glued the pages together into the ocean shape onto brown wrapping paper, then attached it with hot glue or staples to the tablecloth. I started by writing quotes about reading onto the brown paper, but that was taking way too long, so there is a random-looking strip with quotes, and that is why. The favors were $0.25 notebooks (bought in packs) from Walmart. I hot glued recycled book pages onto the covers.

I hope you enjoyed this theme, thanks for visiting!

-Lauryn 

Riley's Ocean Fairytale 11th Birthday Party

 

Hello, here is a birthday party from last year with an unusual theme for my cousin who loved the beach and (I think) reading stories: "Ocean Fairytale" is my preferred theme title, but it basically combines ocean/beach/story/storybook/fairytale/book themes all into one. 

Looking back, I don't love the color palette but I wanted something unique at the time, so it was a blue to green gradient (mainly turquoise and a sky/baby blue) contrasted by a brownish, mustard-yellow-type orange and enhanced with other neutral browns. 

Handmade elements and DIY clam and pearl party favors:

-The giant palm-like leaves were painted and cut paper.

-The backdrop was made from painted and cut posters.

-The castle was also made from a poster, combining watercolor and pen.

-I had made the banner for my classroom by tying together strips of fabric to a string, cutting and hot-gluing triangular book pages, and for this party I taped on top hand-watercolored ocean pictures I outlined and shaded with ink pens. The signs were also handwritten on top of watercolor swatches on cardstock. 

-For the chocolate 'pearls' I bought a box of Whoppers.

-The 'sea snails' were cinnamon buns.

-For the clam and pearl favors, I bought a pack of mini wallets in the party favor section of Walmart. I drew shells on cardstock with gel ink or Sharpie pens, cut them out, and stapled them on top of the wallets. I placed a Whopper in each one, packaged them, and that's all there is to it! 

I hope you found this post useful, thank you for visiting! 

-Lauryn