First Birthday Party

I have always wanted to go CRAZY on party planning, but have never done much beyond creating cute invitations and using pre made decorations. This year I decided to put a little more effort into it. So with a very limited budget, my new found time and lots of ideas I got started!
  I was initially inspired by a cute little birthday shirt that I bought (super cheap on clearance at Target) for Ellery when she was just a couple months old. It has the cutest ruffled cupcake top that I thought I could mimic for invites. Well, lets just say that I never got to the invites because I found lots of cute other projects I just had to do!

A IKEA planter turned upside acts as
another cake stand.

I have always wanted to go CRAZY on party planning, but have never done much beyond creating cute invitations and using pre made decorations. This year I decided to put a little more effort into it. So with a very limited budget, my new found time and lots of ideas I got started!
  I was initially inspired by a cute little birthday shirt that I bought (super cheap on clearance at Target) for Ellery when she was just a couple months old. It has the cutest ruffled cupcake top that I thought I could mimic for invites. Well, lets just say that I never got to the invites because I found lots of cute other projects I just had to do!  

First off I found these adorable Ruffled flower Cake Toppers that inspired everything else.

My version was made with fabric, buttons and
and craft sticks from local thrift stores.

 I also made a dozen or so of these cute fabric flower rosettes. I had seen tons of them embellishing T-shirts, headbands and other accessories and figured I could learn to make them too. Talk about easy! I followed directions from this tutorial to get the basics and using the same materials I bought to make my cake toppers.

Rosette glued to Miss Ellery's headband!

I used the rosettes on the Happy Birthday Banner and printed my own custom happy birthday letters on plain off-white card stock. I used a decorative cutter to to the lacy edge and strung the letters on crochet yarn.

Paper scraps made cute 3D leaves
 when folded before hot gluing to paper!

Then I found this Cupcake Liner Garland Tutorial and really liked how simple it was.

I used dyed coffee filters pink and cut circles out of music books, sewing patterns and organza fabric. All from my local thrift stores for just a few dollars.

The "one" sign I made using a scrap piece of wood...it was already painted so I sanded it down and glued on a piece of scrapbook paper. The unfinished wood letters came from the craft store. I used Martha Stewart's line of glitter and pearlized paint to finish them before hot gluing them to the wood plaque.

Vintage Milk bottles and a plant pot from IKEA make
 great containers for straws and pink lemonade!

I also used her paints to glitter thrift store candle sticks so they could be used as cupcake stands. I sat vintage plates on them to create the stands. I highly recommend gluing the plates to the candlesticks, otherwise the cupcakes will fall with the slightest of bumps. I couldn't do that step since I was using my great grandmothers plates, so next time I will use some that I won't mind gluing.

 

The party favors were a last minute addition. I made some pink popcorn and put it in paper sacks with a little toy as the prize. My version of Cracker Jacks! I simply closed the bags with paper clips that I found in the $1 bin at the craft store.

A separate table held the desserts and finger foods

My favorite party decoration was this too cute photo that my husband took of Ellery when she was brand new! I did a custom photo edit and then had it blown up to 11x17 size at Costco. My hubby helped me tape behind the glass on this old window I have been hauling around for ages. We hung it on the wall and then styled the party around it. It was just so beautiful that I am going to find a way to use it in my house.

I learned so much putting this party together! I had a ton of fun and think the birthday girl enjoyed it too!

Miss Ellery, age 1