Inexpensive Party Hacks Without Losing the Cute Factor; Easy Party DIY’s

Five party hacks I created for my son’s first birthday party. Replicate these no problem!

1.Simple sheet backdrop for photos

Cut an old sheet or tarp down the center and sew together for a bit of detail- completely optional. This was a fall party so we added pumpkins, flowers, and hay to spice the area up. Minimal effort, but extremely cute!

2. Highchair sign

I measured the length of his highchair tray with tweed I had already. I used ribbon and strips of old fabric and tied knots to the tweed. I made them tight and close together. It is not necessary to use as much material as I did. You can make it cute with less and more spread out.

I painted the letters “O N E” onto burlap and cut to size and shape I liked.

3. Turkey smashcake

I love the idea of a smash cake for babies, but I do not like the idea of spending a lot of money for something that will essentially be thrown out. For my parties, I always buy an inexpensive plain cake from the grocery store and dress it up myself.

This year I got colored meltable chocolates to make turkey feathers, eyeballs, beak, and gobble for a turkey cake. I have used fondant in the past as well.

4. Banner Decor

I was looking on Etsy for a cute “LITTLE TURKEY” banner for the party, along with one of those 12 month picture displays. Both of which would have cost me $30+ with shipping. I was not willing to do that for something that looks homemade.

I combined the ideas to make a “LITTLE TURKEY” sign that also displayed photos. It came out to exactly 12 letters, so I assigned a letter to an age.

It was more time consuming, but turned out cheaper than buying something off of Etsy. I had the construction paper, stencils, tweed, and hot glue gun to put it together.

5. Invitation made on Canva

I love the idea of paper invitations to send in the mail, because let’s face it, who doesn’t love getting mail??

The problem I find is each time I host an event, or send Christmas cards, I have to text the person for their address. No one updates when they move anymore, so it becomes a much bigger task than necessary.

So, I started opting to make my own virtual invitation to send my text. This way you know your guest is going to receive it. You can keep track of who you invited and who RSVP’d.

You can use a service to create the invitation for you, or do an e-vite, but those cost an unnecessary amount of money. I just use Canva to make mine.

They have wonderful templates premade for invitations, or start from scratch.

This time around, I created mine from scratch.