Doing parties on a budget... get crafty!!

This is going to be a bit of a random blog but thought it might help mums and dads who have childrens birthdays coming up but don't want to pay through the roof for entertainers and soft play centres.

My brother and sister always have their birthdays at home, it means that although they cant have the whole class round you can save huge amounts of money and you get to spend money on personal touches to suit your child's interests and the children get to go home with memories of a party unlike any other!

Last year my sister had a fairy party! we decorated the house with everything a fairy kingdom would have, toadstools rainbows fairy lights etc.

We painted a rainbow onto some lining paper which was basically free

We used some Christmas decorations of fairies and butterflies (we have an eclectic tree)

Homemade bunting (this takes a while but you could buy this to save time)

One of my favourite ways of decorating a space for any occasion is these paper pom poms me and my sister made these and it is really simple!!

1. Take around 8-10 sheets of tissue paper and place them in a pile (any colours you like)
2. Concertina the paper (fold it like a fan)
3. Tie in the middle with invisible cotton or anything you have around string or thread.
4. Cut the ends into a rounded or pointed edge
5. Carefully unfold each layer till you have a pom pom

This was our Fairy Throne just covered a childrens chair in some fabric and I made the flower design by cutting up carrier bags and sticking them to a piece of card the stuck a flower shape in the middle.

The colourful rabbits were left from Easter and we painted the toadstool on the same lining paper from before.

 Another bonus from throwing parties like this is that the kids can get involved too Holly helped with most of this decoration and found it nearly as much fun as the party itself!


It was her 7th Birthday this year and she decided on a Mermaid party, This was one of the easiest themes to come up with decorations because there are so many under the sea ideas that are really easy to achieve, always look on Pinterest as people post some great ideas on there!

My Mum was very adventurous this time and decided to make an under the sea caste cake herself complete with sugar icing mermaid and coral!! It looked amazing but we now know if you make a sugar icing mermaid don't leave it near a lamp :-s she looked slightly drunk by the time the party came!

There are some really good books on cake design  my mum found this idea in a book from the library, but I'm sure you could search online as well.

We had just moved house when we did this party so I painted a mermaid mural on the wall, obviously this isn't an option for everyone but you could make big posters instead?

Also some great games that the kids always love are pinatas, you can get ones in all shapes and sizes from ebay, We had a fish for this party and a unicorn at the fairy one. My brothers party is this weekend and he is having a games themed party we bought some angry bird re-usable stickers to decorate the walls and we are planning on decorating the cake with little figures of Mario and Luigi.

Hope this has given people a few ideas?

If you would like to see how I decorated and the food and cocktail I did at my quirky birthday at home with a few friends let me know??