Budget Friendly Valentine's Party & DIY Heart Garland Tutorial

Valentine's Day is such a fun holiday! It's an excuse to celebrate the ones we love and to host little get togethers full of cuteness! Natalie from The Busy Budgeting Momma sent me this adorable budget friendly party idea using her printable Pretty Paperie Valentine's Day Collection, around the house items and dollar store/clearance aisle finds!

You will just love the DIY heart garland featured throughout the party and the how-to is listed below!

{The beautiful pictures were taken by Christine Marie Fine Art Photography}

HEART GARLAND TUTORIAL

Now on to the how-to for the darling garland as told by Natalie! You can also visit The Busy Budgeting Momma to learn more and see more tutorial pictures.

Supplies:

Scrapbook paper

Craft punches

{Natalie purchased all of the supplies on clearance or already had on hand}

Additional Supplies:

Red and pink heart doilies

Cupcake toppers

Pink thread

* I lined up in front of my sewing machine the hearts in the pattern

i wanted so i could just grab and go!

* When i went to sew, i lined up the heart at a certain line,

so that they wouldn't be top heavy.

*Then i ran them through...letting the machine go a few stitches in between,

before sliding in another heart! You could customize that to get the length you want.

i think i let it go down into the machine 3/4 times...

and then i made up another garland letting it go down 4/5 times.

i liked the variety.

Natalie also created several more garlands using inexpensive heart doilies and extra cupcake toppers!

A big thank you to Natalie for sharing these beautiful photographs by Christine Marie and for the DIY Heart Garland Tutorial!

{Real Parties} Chinese New Year Birthday Celebration

Do you love Project Nursery as much as I do?! Well, the sweet and talented co-creator of the site, Melisa Fluhr, just hosted an adorable first birthday party for her son! Melisa's son, Chase, is 1/4 Chinese, so she thought it would be perfect to base his party around the upcoming Chinese New Year Celebration - The Year of the Rabbit!

With only a few weeks to plan the party, Melisa enlisted the help of the incredibly talented Kelly of The Party Dress and WH Hostess. Kelly did a beautiful job interpreting Melisa's vision of a modern, bamboo themed first birthday party that would incorporate red rabbits!

The dessert table featured authentic Chinese goodies and candies such as Moon Cakes, Sesame Balls, Wintermelon Cakes, Lychee candy, Haw Flakes, candied water chestnuts and more! Melisa also included yummy cupcakes and banana pudding from Magnolia Cupcakes and vailla sugar cookies with lemon frosting by Angela from Queen of Tarts Cakes.

My favorite part of the dessert table was the DIY canvas backdrop! Kelly sent Melisa the bamboo print in a file which she then had turned into a canvas at Uprinting. The next step was to visit an art supply store and stretch the canvases on canvas bars. Now Melisa has wall art with mod graphics that can be enjoyed year round! Such a great idea!

The cake is adorable! I love the pop of red and yellow from the FONDANT fortune cookies! What a simple adornment, but it provides a big impact!

The party was held from 5pm-7pm, so the children arrived in their pj's or "Mandarin Suits". The big kids watched "Mulan" and "Kung Fu Panda" while participating in a Chinese paper lantern craft.

Finger foods, such as Dim Sum, was served in Chinese take-out boxes!

The adults were treated to a fully stocked bar with two signature drinks...Burning Mandarin Martinis and Lychee infused champagne cocktails!

{Does this background look familiar?? You may remember the window area from the precious Modern Train Party Melisa hosted last year along with Kelly's designs!}

As a parting gift and keeping with the Chinese New Year tradition, guests departed with Mandarin oranges for good luck, take out containers filled with candy and a lucky red envelope from the decorative centerpiece to ward off evil spirits!

Is the birthday boy not the cutest??!!

I hope you enjoyed this birthday party with a cultural twist as much as I did! As always, Kelly's designs are perfect and Melisa did a fantastic job carrying out the theme. Thank you ladies for sharing this creative party with us!

{Real Parties} Monkey Love, Part II - Inside Decor

I have so many gorgeous pictures to share with you from the Monkey Love party! Ellen Johnson did a fabulous job capturing the party and literally sent me over a thousand images! Today I’m showing you pictures of the inside décor from the table arrangements, beverage station, cake and DIY ribbon backdrop.

When my client and friend, Shannon, first started working on Alexandra’s party, she came across Kelly of The Party Dress and WH Hostess and enlisted her help to create an inspiration board and all of the paper goods. The board Kelly created was beautiful and served as a great inspiration piece for Shannon and I. One of our favorite ideas from the board was to use moss throughout the party décor. I contacted one of my favorite Houston florists, Lisa Tran of Wedding Flowers by Lisa, to turn our vision into a reality. Lisa did an AMAZING job!

As guests walked up the pathway to the front door, they were surrounded by the most gorgeous ribbon moss balls hung on shepherd hooks.

The inside tables were another focal point. Each table was draped in a pink linen and held three small arrangements. I found the daintiest ceramic vases from Heart to Heart which Lisa filled with bright yellow Billy Balls, pink roses and hydrangeas in pink and green. Lisa also designed a moss cone which she adorned with pink spray roses and yellow Calla Lilies.

Shannon’s dining room is gorgeous to begin with! But we of course wanted to add to the party décor, so Wedding Flowers by Lisa created three stunning monochromatic arrangements that were set on top of a light pink satin tablecloth that adorned the table. Shannon’s buffet piece served as the table for the adorable monkey cake made by Cakes by Gina!

To highlight the area where the birthday girl would dive into her smash cake, I created a ribbon backdrop which consisted of a mixture of satin and grosgrain ribbon in all of the party colors. I purchased ribbon in widths varying from 1” to 3”. The backdrop was stunning since the ribbons hung from Shannon’s tall ceiling. This was our labor of love since we had to be ever so careful with her draperies. You should have seen me on the tall ladder and on my tippy toes! Probably not the safest, but anything for a party, right?!

In the kitchen, we set up the beverage station. We assembled a runner out of the adorable grass mats I originally saw on HWTM. This turned out really cute! Behind the runner, I placed 3 glass beverage servers which were embellished with drink tags (and ribbon) designed by Kelly. The dispensers were filled with strawberry lemonade, regular lemonade and iced tea. Water bottles, with custom labels by Kelly, we placed here as well. September is HOT in Houston, so we needed to keep the guests cool!

For the adults, pink mojitos were offered! Cups were preset with mint and a pink striped straw from Hey Yo Yo.

As a parting gift, the kids took home a plush monkey and custom bubble tin created by WH Hostess! These were perfect and my boys still love on their monkey!

Here is a picture of the precious birthday girl, Alexandra, and her doting parents!

Stay tuned for Part III which will highlight the outside decor. Incase you missed the dessert table details, you can see Part I here!