RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Hi and Welcome! I hope you enjoy this little DIY (Do-it-yourself) and crafting blog. Sewing and crafting are my favorite hobbies, so I hope to share simple, inexpensive ideas and projects that you can put your own crafty spin on.
First of all, let me say this: Pinterest is your friend. So is the Dollar Tree! Oh, and hot glue, haha! Most of the time I get my ideas from Pinterest and then immediately head to the Dollar Tree to see what materials I can find.
As an ode to summer, I thought I’d share some of the fun DIY ideas we did for our daughter’s third birthday party. She turned three in July and requested an “Ariel” party. She is all about princesses and mermaids (which I fully support!) so I couldn’t wait to brainstorm ideas to celebrate! I knew I didn’t want to host the party at our home, so I reserved the pavilion in Cheswick Park, which has a great playground and was the perfect blank slate to turn into an “Under the Sea” soiree.
An “Under the Sea” soiree
I began to scour Pinterest for ideas and boy are people clever!! I looked for ideas that I could execute during nap time or after I put her to bed – projects that appeared somewhat simple, inexpensive, and not too time consuming! I always try to use stuff we have or find an inexpensive way to make it myself…I appreciate the challenge I suppose. Here is my Pinterest board so you can see many of the ideas we used for yourself.
First of all, let me say this: Pinterest is your friend. So is the Dollar Tree! Oh, and hot glue, haha! Most of the time I get my ideas from Pinterest and then immediately head to the Dollar Tree to see what materials I can find.
One of the first projects I did was create an underwater mural to hang on the back wall of the pavilion. This was a great project because my daughter was able to help and get involved (and it entertained her for hours!) I bought a roll of blue wrapping paper and used tempera paint, crayons, glue sticks, construction paper, and squiggly eyes to create our scene.
We worked on it in our kitchen over a few afternoons – unrolling the wrapping paper as we went along. I let her pick out what sea creatures we included, as well as help paint, glue, and color. She was quite the Art Director. One thing I really liked about doing this project was that it was large and would take up a lot of the space along the pavilion wall. I feel like we got a lot of bang for our $5.99-wall-paper-turned-mural buck!
One of my favorite projects that I used from Pinterest was these paper lantern fish. I purchased about 10 paper lanterns in different colors from the Dollar Tree and got to work. I made little templates for the fins and lips and used some fun patterned paper I had laying around the house. You could easily have your child make a design on construction paper and then cut the patterns out of that! I hot glued the fins, lips, and squiggly eyes and was so pleased with how these turned out. I bought some twine from the Dollar Tree as well and hung the paper lantern fish up around the pavilion on the day of her party. They looked so cute.
In searching for ideas, I also found this adorably clever hair bow that I decided to recreate as party favors for the little girls (for reference – in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” Ariel calls forks “dingle-hoppers” and uses the fork to brush her hair.). Again, the Dollar Tree did not disappoint! I bought enough hair bows for our guests, a spool of magenta sequined ribbon, and plastic silver hors d’oeuvres forks. I simply slid the tiny fork through the knot of the bow and secured with some hot glue. I then wrapped the knot in the sequined ribbon to make it a little flashy and secured with hot glue as well. Voila!! “Dingle-hopper” hair bows for all! Fun party favors for basically $1.00/piece!
Pinterest did not let me down for fun food ideas either! I was able to get cute coordinating serving ware (buckets, platters, bowls, etc.) from the Dollar Tree, as well as matching beach/ocean themed plastic table cloths, plates, and silverware. Here are my favorite food ideas that we used for the party (click my pinterest board link above for links and tutorials!):
Watermelon shark
M&M rainbow fish cupcakes
“Grape seaweed”
Blue JELLO with gummy fish and gummy sharks (I bought clear plastic bowls from the Dollar Tree that looked like fish bowls. Our daughter got to help make these too which she loved)
“Fish and chips” – which was a bowl of goldfish and potato chips
Hummus and veggie beach buckets — we bought little plastic shot glasses from the Dollar tree and hot-glued pipe cleaners to make the buckets.
In keeping with my goal of using things we already had, I was able to use a crab-shaped baby pool as a cooler for the drinks! It was such a fun decoration and it was perfect for keeping the drinks cool. Our daughter had actually received a Little Mermaid play set from her first birthday so we used those toys to top her cake. We bought Betty Crocker’s “Blue Velvet” cake mix, blue icing, and placed it on crumbled graham crackers to look like sand. It turned out so cute. We made little paper scrolls to adorn many of the food items, including one to top her cake.
Finally, I saw this dress on Pinterest and fell in love with it! I thought it would make the perfect party dress for the birthday girl so I used that idea to make our daughter one. I already had a pattern that I love, so I ordered some “scale” material off of eBay and had some solid magenta fabric already. I added a purple zipper and coordinating monogram, and topped her look off with sparkly pink TOMS and her “Dingle-Hopper” hair bow of course.
Finally the day had arrived and I couldn’t wait to see everything come together! We added some balloons and the party was complete.
Tell me, what are some of your favorite DIY ideas!?
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