Della’s Confetti 1st Birthday

Della’s 1st Birthday party is what sparked my passion and excitement for diy crafting and styling parties, I thought what better post to launch Little Party Girl than this party. Everyone thought I was crazy for putting so much effort into a one year old’s birthday. They said, “She is never going to remember this!!” All I could think to myself was it was a celebration for all of us. Of course we were celebrating her birthday, but it was also the anniversary of my first birth, it was a year spent with a new addition to the family, and the first year is full of so much exhaustion, crazy hormones, and oh so much love that you should celebrate it because you survived! We all deserve a party!

After a few days of list making and concepts, I finally pinned down the theme, Confetti! What better way to symbolize a celebration than confetti!  

So off I went on a mad dash to use up craft supplies I already had in the house. I was on a mission to style a beautiful party on a dime. That being said, I decided I would do everything myself! I am a creative person and love to make something out of nothing,  I tend to “fake it till I make it” and surprise myself with the result!  However, baking and cake decorating was never one of those traits I could pull off up until this point. I am a “just got for it,  add ingredients until it looks or feels right” type of person…. I have a real hard time following a recipe or instructions… But! I said I was going to do everything myself so, I rolled up my sleeves  and went on a trek through Pinterest.  The quest to teach myself how to make a pro looking cake was starting to look promising. The more videos I watched the more confident I got, they make it look so easy! I stumbled across this polka dot cake tutorial and it looked like it would be a definite crowd pleaser that wouldn’t take too much technique/skill. Not only was it beautiful on the outside it had a hidden surprise inside that went along with our confetti theme, large rainbow polka dots!

I finally mustered up the courage to do a test and bake the cake. Success! All three layers were done… now to decorate. Head over to Meaningful Mama for the Icing I used, it’s the best Buttercream recipe to get a smooth even icing. I added a simple decoration with large rainbow nonpareil sprinkles along the perimeter and called it done!  

I had some left over batter so I decided to make Della a smash cake! I used two desert ramekins and put a dollop of colored batter on top, I used a toothpick to give it a marbled effect. Into the oven they went.

Once the cakes were cool, I layered and iced them with a similar decoration I added to the large cake. 

Now that I knew I could pull the cake off, I started doing what I do best…. Crafting and using up the supplies I have on hand. I found these super cute polka dot birthday hats at Target and put my own spin on them. I used up the tissue paper scraps I had from other projects I was making for the party. Adding some texture to the bottom of the hat and then adding gold glitter to the top. Cause you should always choose to add glitter!  Click here for this easy tutorial

I made decorated birthday candles for a 30th birthday a few years back using dollar store number candles.  I decided I wanted to do something like this for Dell’s cake. This is an easy way to put your personal touch on a cake that looks super impressive and costs next to nothing. Custom Birthday Candles Click here

Continuing the theme I made custom confetti letters that are perfect for cake/cupcake toppers or even a simple decorative accent. These were a huge hit and also didn’t cost me anything. Using my DIY confetti (left overs from my DIY tissue paper pom poms) hot glue, and some wooden bbq skewers, I was on my way to a one of a kind decoration that had no additional cost.

Tisha’s Tip* Buy tissue paper in bulk for parties like this because you can make a variety of decorations from one pack of paper.  With this pack I made (DIY tissue paper pom poms), shredded confetti (for Hats & DIY confetti bowl), and filled clear balloons with 1” circles cut with a dye punch. (DIY confetti Balloons)  When making the pom poms, I saved my scraps to make the shredded confetti. That is the nicest thing about this theme, no scrap was wasted, the more confetti the better!

Tisha’s Tip * My goal was to use as much of the material I had in my studio and to spend as little as possible. I decided not to use helium for the clear balloons. A great money saving option is to hang them from the ceiling. They filled the space and had the same impact without the added expense. You could also really see the confetti since they were hanging upside down, I was very happy with this result. 

I used the 2″ circle paper punch to cut out different colors of card stock and then I simply taped them to the wall using blue painters tape. This really brought the space together.

Tisha’s Tip* I am obsessed with the hand held dye cutters you can get at your local craft store.  They can be a bit pricey so make sure you plan ahead to purchase it when you get a 50% or 60% off coupon!

I hope this post inspired you to make some fun decorations on a dime!