We celebrated the "hippie baby" turning 3 with a nature-themed, bug crawling birthday bash! Below you'll find our step-by-step guide to creating a super fabulous flower backdrop for any flowery festivity... and we've included some pics from A's party too!
DIY Paper Flower Backdrop
To create this flower backdrop you'll need:
crepe paper streamers
balloons
tape
1. Start with a base layer. This part is a bit tedious, but if you cut the streamers into strips first, it will go a lot faster. Tape the streamer strips onto the wall or window (we left the bottom hanging for a flowy look, but you can certainly tape the bottom if you're worried about wind or weather).
2. Next, start adding your garland and flowers. Use command hooks to affix the flowers. You may find that you have to move the flowers after you've placed them because they aren't quite right (i.e., two pink flowers right next to each other, etc) - no biggie - that's why you used Command Hooks! If you fasten them more permanently, moving things around will be much more difficult.
3. Finally, grab your (deflated) balloons and place them on the table from left to right in rainbow order (remember ROY G. BIV... red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet). Once you have your balloons laid out, decide which ones you actually want to use. You'll notice from the photos, that we chose to take out the purple and red because we just didn't have anything decorative in those colors. Instead, we started with the pinks and oranges and made our way to greens and blues. I convinced Luisa to buy a balloon pump from Dollar Tree (and yes, she totally rolled her eyes when I told her we needed one) but boy was she happy when she realized how many balloons we ended up using!
4. Making your way from left to right, affix the balloons (of all sizes) to the wall or window, covering the tops of the streamers and filling in holes between flowers. We used BAM tape to keep the balloons in place and boy did it do the job - they didn't budge once! Remember, vary your sizes of balloons - it looks best when the balloons are NOT uniform. It also helps if you have someone standing back and looking at the backdrop from afar. It's hard to see how it looks when you're right up against it. Someone looking at the project from a few feet back, can point out the empty spots and/or tell you what size balloon you need or if the placement of a balloon or flower doesn't quite work. Remember, teamwork makes the dream work!
There you have it! A fabulous flowery backdrop for any occasion. If you're throwing a baby or bridal shower, you can easily recreate this in a solid color scheme too... the options are endless!
And now some pics from the party...
Casa de Pinatas created this colorful masterpiece that had us all wishing we didn't have to "kill it!"
A yummy cake topped with creepy crawlers didn't keep us from gobbling it all up!
Kiddos painted the wall using chalk paint.
And the sensory bins are always a hit!
Party favor bags were filled with magic sand bug kits, tattoos, a magnifying glass and compass.
And in typical A fashion, she jumped the gun on blowing out her candles. See below.
All in all, it was a bug-smashing success. Happy 3rd Birthday, A! We love you!!