Birthday Balloon Wreath

I made this adorable Birthday Balloon Wreath originally for my daughters' Minnie Mouse Bow-tique birthday party, (check out the whole Minnie Mouse Bow-tique Party here: http://berriesofwisdom.blogspot.com/2015/08/minnie-mouse-bow-tique-party.html ) but it has since turned into the Birthday Wreath that we have used for every birthday and party at our house. 

I also used it for my oldest daughter's Pancakes and Pajamas Party, check out that whole party here: http://berriesofwisdom.blogspot.com/2015/09/pancakes-and-pajamas-birthday-party.html

It was really easy to make and it's been easy to add to it for each party. 

P.S. It cost less than $20 for the whole thing....

All you need is a foam/Styrofoam wreath. I got mine from the dollar store. GO TO THE DOLLAR STORE FIRST! This was $1 compared to $6-$7 at the craft store for the exact same thing.

I used 6 bags of balloons (20 to a bag, but I'm sure you can buy a larger too.)

 1 1/2 packs of greening pins.

Ribbon to hang the wreath, and maybe hang signs from the wreath too.

 Now the back of the wreath won't show, so I didn't worry about putting balloons there (my almost 4 year-old was very concerned about it though...). But if you do care, you can wrap ribbon around the wreath before pinning the balloons.

 Push the greening pin in the center of 2 balloons.

Fold the balloons in half.

Push into the Styrofoam. Continue until the wreath is full.

I added little signs hanging from the wreath that said "Come Inside, It's Fun Inside" for the Minnie's Bow-tique Party and a Minnie Mouse face on the wreath too. For a Pancake and Pajamas Party I added a "Good Morning" sign and a donut cut-out on the wreath too.

(This picture was taken at night, we'd almost forgot about it till the end of the party)

To see more about the Minnie Mouse Bow-tique Party, go here: http://berriesofwisdom.blogspot.com/2015/08/minnie-mouse-bow-tique-party.html

And for a how-to on this cute Minnie Mouse Sucker Centerpiece, go here:

http://berriesofwisdom.blogspot.com/2015/08/minnie-mouse-sucker-centerpiece.html

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Party Decorations-Part III

My hubby gave me a smaller budget than I'm used to for my daughter's 1st birthday party, so I was 'forced' to make all my own decorations. Normally I would buy all sorts of cute banners and decor from someone on Etsy for WAY to much money (but very convenient), but I recently got a Cricut paper cutter and I have stacks of random scrapbook paper so I thought I could try to make everything myself. My  theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which I felt would be easy because I could just cut out a bunch of circles. And it was super easy.

I made quite a few banners, and all but one of them were made using just the basic Cricut Cartridge that comes the Cricut paper cutter, so I didn't even have to buy any special cartridges for the banners.

The first banner I made was a Happy Birthday Banner.

 

 

The Happy Birthday Banner was just 3 separate banner; 1st banner read "Happy", 2nd banner read "Birthday", and the 3rd one had my daughter's name. I made sure to position the caterpillar head facing opposite directions on alternating banners.

 

Then I made a I am 1 Banner (this was for my little one's first birthday!)

 

 I originally planned to put this banner around the tabletop of the highchair, but then you couldn't read it all so we placed it on the wall behind the highchair. The banner looked cute underneath my Caterpillar Balloon guy too.

 

 

I also made a Very Hungry Caterpillar "Floormat" that I placed under the highchair

 

This cute guy was under the highchair to help catch some of the falling smash cake.

 

 

My favorite thing was the Year of Pictures Banner of my daughter:

 

 

 

 

(Left hand corner in the below pic, on the wall)

 

I placed a picture of my daughter, one for each month of her life so far (and then a couple extra irresistible photos too). And of course the caterpillar head at the beginning. 

 

And I made a FUN FOOD BANNER with all different food cut-outs (all items of food the caterpillar eats in the book). I made this banner using a couple other cartridges (Preserves Cartridge and Sweet Treats cartridge) and I used a lot of things I had already cut out for my centerpieces, but they had a mistake or couldn't be used for some reason. (Check out my Very Hungry Caterpillar Centerpieces here: http://berriesofwisdom.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-party.html )

 

 

 

For a majority of the banners, I just cut out a lot of circles. The circles for my Year of Photos Banner were a little larger (I think I cut the outer circle 7 inches), but all the rest were cut to 5 1/2 inch circles, mainly so that I could cut 4 circles out of each 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper and not waste too much excess paper. The inner circle was cut a little bit smaller, and the red circles for the head were cut the same size as the outer circles. And for the Year of Photos Banner, I printed 4x6 photo prints, And I cut them into 4 inch circles to place in the center of each circle.

 

Then I made the cute faces. I cut out 3 inch ovals (yellow), for the outer eyes. Then slightly smaller ovals (green) for the center of the eye and for the noses. For the antenna, I just cut them out with good old scissors since I didn't need too many and I didn't have a Cricut cartridge for the shape I wanted. I stuck butterfly stickers (from an Eric Carle set of stickers) for the spacing on the "I AM 1" banner and on the tail circles of the Happy Birthday banners. I pieced the circles together with present wrapping ribbon from the dollar store (except the Year of Photos Banner, I just taped each individual part on the wall).

 

I made sure to cut out a face for the Balloon Caterpillar

and a face for my paper plate caterpillar too while I was at it.

Directions for this paper plate caterpillar are here:

 http://berriesofwisdom.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-party.html 

He was super easy and very inexpensive too!

 

 

I cut out 11 1/2 inch circles for the caterpillar floormat, glued them together to fit through the legs of the highchair, and made another cute face and antenna.

 

 

I also used the same stickers and squares of colored scrapbook paper and toothpicks to make these cupcake toppers.