Hey party peeps!
This post is a recap of my recent entry into the fabulous Spaceships and Laserbeams‘ “Boy Bash on a Budget Challenge” that I recently participated in. The challenge was to pick any of the Spaceships & Laserbeams printable collections and design a dessert table around it for $50 or less! If you missed the original post, you can click here to view it.
MY INSPIRATION!
As many of you already know I just had a baby boy last December and jumped at the chance to be a part of the SLB Boy Bash on a Budget Challenge. I have been doing LOTS of girl parties lately including my own two daughters and really wanted to do something boyish to get me ready for my baby boy’s MANY years of parties! So, here it goes. When looking through SLB’s collection of printables to decide which one to use for my design, I stopped in my tracks at the “Snakes & Snails” collection! Why you ask? Well…it just so happens that my favorite onesie for my son reminded me so much of this collection. In fact, yes, that is the onesie that the bear is wearing on the table! What you can’t see is on the back, there is a denim pocket with a snail peeking out of it! PERFECT! That was my source of inspiration when I designed this table.
As writer of the “Look For Less Budget Chic” posts for HWTM, I LOVE creating parties on a budget! It forces me to be creative with my materials and think outside the box. With my inspiration piece in hand, I began to look at what I already owned that I could use in the design so I could focus the budget on the actual treats and sweets that my guests would enjoy.
BUDGET CHIC TIP #1:
USE WHAT YOU ALREADY OWN!
I have had that fabulous IKEA tree fabric for years! No, I must admit, I didn’t buy it for a party I was working on…I just LOVED it, bought it and waited for the perfect opportunity to design a party around it. I was so excited to use it with this design and it worked perfectly to bring in my design style of “Modern Whimsey”.
Since the onesie was a denim color, I decided to use my denim tablecloth which is a great base to tie in all the colors and loved how it had a boyish charm to it. My oldest daughter happens to love snakes…don’t ask! So, the stuffed snakes on the table…belong to her 🙂 She was super excited to let me “borrow” them for this!
BUDGET CHIC TIP #2:
CREATE AN INEXPENSIVE WOW-FACTOR CENTERPIECE!
I wanted to use the stuffed snake as the table’s WOW factor and wanted to show it coiled up, not just boringly stretched out flat, so I used my cupcake stand and wound the snake around it and secured it with glue dots! It did double duty as my holder for the brownie bites! Soooo BUDGET CHIC!
BUDGET CHIC TIP #3:
FIND STORE-BOUGHT SWEETS THAT MATCH YOUR PARTY’S COLORS!
Let’s go over the sweets….First, let me say that keeping within a $50 budget is tough when you don’t bake and you want to match the color of your sweets to your table design. Having custom-made desserts are NOT an option with $50 to spend, so I set out to Target to look for sweets to fill my table. I hit the MOTHERLOAD when I went in there! First of all….those wooden trays…the blue and green ones…they were in the $2.50 bins and the all green M&M’s were in the $1 bins. They are a new flavor: Mint Chocolate…yummy! M&M’s are VERY expensive when you want to buy them loose in one color. This was a total score! The green plastic containers holding the M&Ms are actually 2 stackable round storage containers that I pulled apart to make 8 small round dishes.
Okay, the green snowballs? YES! These normally come only in pink. These green ones happened to be a limited edition color so I snatched them up quick! They reminded me of little green grass hills. A few gummy “snakes” on top and they were perfect!
The green and blue swirl lollipops from Target’s “The Candy Store” collection were my splurge item on the table. Budget wouldn’t allow for me to get one for each guest, so I used them as decor instead! I still get the look of them and stay within budget.
BUDGET CHIC TIP #4:
FIND STORE-BOUGHT SWEETS THAT MATCH YOUR PARTY’S THEME!
Trying to come up with a snail themed sweet was hard. Nothing appetizing came to mind. Then I was walking down the aisle and saw these gummy fruit snacks with gooey middles. PERFECT! Slimey, gooey sweet treat that kids LOVE!
BUDGET CHIC TIP #5:
FIND DRINKS THAT MATCH YOUR PARTY’S COLORS!
The blue “Bug Juice” was on the clearance endcap! I removed the label (which totally was not in my color scheme) and adhered a 1″ logo circle to match the table.
BUDGET CHIC TIP #6:
USE CONTAINERS THAT MATCH YOUR PARTY’S COLORS TO HOLD SWEETS THAT DON’T MATCH OR FAVORS!
Inside the white boxes you can put any candy you want! A tip I use on my sweets bars all the time is to use a color-coordinated container to hold a must-have sweet or candy that DOES NOT match the table’s color. Usually this is the guest-of-honor’s favorite candy. Funny how their favorite candy never matches! You could also use the boxes to hold small favors also.
BUDGET CHIC TIP #7:
USE INEXPENSIVE WHIMSICAL ELEMENTS TO MAKE IT FUN!
To add a whimsical touch to the table, I used chenille stems to hold the printable circles, create a handle on the favor boxes and add color to the rock candy sticks. Chenille stems are great and budget friendly! You can get a whole bag of them in all kinds of colors for $1 from Dollar Tree and Michaels! No only are they inexpensive, they were furry and matched the look & feel that the stuffed animals gave to the table.
Okay, okay…who says boy tables can’t have a little bling! I snuck in some sparkly blue and green gems inside my cupcake stands and inside the wooden boxes to give the table a little sparkle!
I loved working on this! Thanks to Stephanie from Spaceships & Laserbeams for letting me participate in this challenge. I’ll be posting up soon the matching dining table design. Don’t miss out on any of my posts. You can subscribe to my blog and get all my blog posts sent directly to your email! Yay! Just put your email address in the SUBSCRIBE box at the top left of this page. Thanks!
THE $50 BUDGET BREAKDOWN:
5 packs of green snowballs: $5
1 bag gummy worms: $1
2 swirl lollipops: $7 ($3.50 each) Target
4 bug juice $3 (.76 each) Target
4 bags Mint chocolate m&m’s: $4 ($1 each Target)
8 rock candy sticks $8 ($1 each Central City Candy)
1 tub brownie bites $3.50 Target
cupcake liners: $1 (Michaels)
2 stacking storage containers (green ) $2 ($1 each)
2 photo boxes: $4 ($2 each)
6 small white favor boxes $3
1 pack chenille stems: $1 (Michaels)
3 wooden trays (1 green, 2 blue) $7.50 ($2.50 each Target)
Total Cost: $50
Items used that I already own:
denim tablecloth
Ikea fabric for backdrop
denim onesie
stuffed bear
stuffed snake
cupcake stands
white tray
blue gems
green gems
glass jars
Vendor credits:
Table design & styling: Soiree Event Design
“Snakes & Snails”Printables: Spaceships & Laserbeams
Photography: Tonya Coleman
These boy party ideas were also featured on Spaceships and Laser Beams.
– See more at: http://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/blog/2013/03/party-central/boy-party-ideas-add-yours-03-12-13#sthash.35TlWtyw.dpuf
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