DIY Party Projects

For Sarah's dinner party, which I blogged about earlier today, I did a lot of DIY projects for decor. It was really fun and saved some money. Plus, it was something fun for me plan for, since I'm no longer planning a wedding. ;)

DIY Painted Vases

I bought some cheap old vases from a thrift shop to use to decorate for the party. I had plenty of vases already at home, but I wanted some that I could paint, and not worry about messing up. Then, I bought some paint in shades of aqua and fuchsia. I then painted the inside of the glasses so that they would have a unique look, with the glass still visible, but the color on the inside. Be sure to use water-resistant paint or enamel-based paint, so that when you add water to the vase it wont cause the paint to come off. I used one of the aqua vases for the centerpiece of the table and the fuschia one for the dessert table. Another one that I did, the paint ended up flaking off the inside when I added water, so be careful about buying the right kind of paint! These were inspired by blog posts I saw here and here. Final results:

DIY Birthday Banner

For this project, I bought 6 sheets of glittery 12x12" card stock in teal and hot pink, grosgrain ribbon, clear tacks, and silver puffy paint. Although I had many different ideas for how to do the lettering on the squares, I decided to paint them by hand after I had trouble getting any paper to stick to the glittery card stock.

First, I cut the 12x12" cardstock into 4 squares of 6x6"each. Then, I organized them how I wanted them (alternating teal and pink). I then took the silver puffy paint and carefully painted one letter on each card. I used a hole punch to punch holes in the upper corners of the cards. Then, I laced the ribbon through the holes and hung them on the wall with tacks. I tied the extra pieces of ribbon around the ends of the ribbon for a cute look.

Other details....

I bought fabric from JoAnn's Crafts for the "tablecloth." It was sheer, hot pink organza with glitter and rhinestones. I thought it was really cute and made the table pop! I also designed the place cards and birthday cake sign on my computer and printed them at home.