Styling a Kid's Party

My daughter recently turned three and although I didn't set out to style her party from scratch, that is exactly what happened. You see, she wanted to have a "Jessie" party. The problem is that all the party supplies for a Toy Story 3 party is Buzz & Woody. She definitely did not want that!

I started out by custom creating the invitations and menu. Once these were put together I looked for all the other little accents to pull the party together.

We had a tight budget to work with and I ended up spending about $200 overall for her party. This includes the food, party decor, invitations, table centerpiece, favors and games. It was a challenge but with a little creativity, it all worked out in the end!


I was thrilled when I came across some cow print fabric on sale at Walmart. It was only $2.50 per yard and I got three yards to make two table runners. This was a children's party so I used plastic red table cloths, paper napkins, plates and cups in red. Then I styled them by creating custom stickers on my computer using photo editing software, Adobe CS3. After I had my cow print fabric I decided to use it in all the little accents.

There were three different kinds of stickers that I used to customize everything, a Jessie sticker, a hat sticker and cow print strips. I used the hat and Jessie motif on "cupcake" toppers, cups, bottles of milk, and favors. The cow print strips were used as silverware wrappers and as an accent on the cups.

I also created a "Happy Birthday" banner by making cow print paper on my computer, printing it out, and then using a circle punch to create the circles. I then used custom made lettering using my Silhouette SD cutter and pasted the onto the circles. To finish, the banner was clipped on twine using clothes pins! It was so easy and turned out so cute!


Of course, the color scheme for the party was black, white, and red after Jessie's cowprint pants and her bright red hat! I also used touches of yellow and suede brown here and there. I had such a great time making a silverware container out of an old shoe box that I wrapped in brown shipping paper. I tied some raffia around it and put in the rolled silverware, and wallah! I also used the suede brown in the party favors.


I used brown paper bags, raffia and a Jessie sticker to create the party favor bags. Inside I put stickers, a kazoo, bubbles, Toy Story 3 fruit snacks, and balloons. They were a hit with the kids! I also custom made cow print milk bottles for all the little ones. It was super easy, I just used 8 oz. water bottles and a black paint pen to color on spots. Then I filled the bottles with 2% milk and stuck on my custom stickers. I stuck them on ice in an old milking pail and had them set out on the buffet table.


On top of these little details, I created tissue paper balls out of red, white and black tissue paper and then hung them from our ceiling over the tables. For the table centerpiece I used bright red carnations in a cute white metal tin I found at the Good Will. The centerpiece just popped off the cow print runner!

Of course, a birthday party is not complete with out some games and birthday cake! I custom made (surprise, right?!) a "Pin the hat on the Jessie" game for all the kids. First, I used white foam core as the backdrop. Then I found pictures of Jessie online and blew it up so that it took up three pages of 8 x 11 paper.

I then printed her out in sections, and then cut and pieced her together. Then I glued Jessie onto the foam core along with the custom made letters from my Silhouette SD machine.



I did the same thing for the hats but made them a little sturdier by "laminating" them in clear contact paper. It was so fantastic to blindfold the kids with a bandanna, spin them around silly and watch them try to pin the hat on the Jessie! They were giggling and having such a blast. Our winner, Logan, got a bag of M & M's as a prize.

The Menu for the party was Southwest cuisine because Jessie is a cowgirl! We served hard shell tacos with all the fixins. We also had chips, homemade salsa, homemade guacamole, cornbread muffins, cookies and Jessie juice punch.

Since our budget was small this year, I made Lily a Jessie cake at home and ordered an edible image from Fun Cakes for You. It tasted delicious but I admit that my cake crafting skills are definitely not professional. Lily was thrilled to have Jessie on her cake so it was good enough!


Although it was definitely more work then having a "store bought" birthday party it was also really, really fun. I had such a great time putting together all of the details and I know that my daughter was absolutely thrilled to have a real Jessie party. There was nary a Buzz or Woody in sight! It is exactly what she wanted which is always my goal!


CREDITS: COWPRINT FABRIC - WALMART, TABLECLOTH AND PAPER PRODUCTS - PARTY CITY,COW PRINT BALLOONS - AMAZON.COM, INVITATIONS/MENU/STICKERS - WONDERFUL DAY WEDDINGS, FLOWERS - SAM'S CLUB, WHITE TIN - GOOD WILL, CENTERPIECE CREATED BY WONDERFUL DAY WEDDINGS, TISSUE BALLS - WONDERFUL DAY WEDDINGS, EDIBLE IMAGES - FUN CAKES FOR YOU, CUPCAKE TOPPERS - WONDERFUL DAY WEDDINGS, BANNER - WONDERFUL DAY WEDDINGS, GAMES - WONDERFUL DAY WEDDINGS, PHOTOGRAPHY - WONDERFUL DAY WEDDINGS