upcycled decorations

So, I took the plunge and committed to a dog-themed first birthday party for my son. If you noticed in the previous post, the cupcake liners and toppers have various dogs donning blue and orange polka dot and striped bandanas. I had my colors--plus brown for dogs/bones/paws--and patterns to pull the theme together.

First project--I knew I wanted to make a banner. I scoured the Web and found a great tutorial for a pennant fabric banner from Penny Carnival. I had leftover blue and white polka dotted fabric from another project for the flags and I bought orange and white striped ribbon on sale at Michael's to string them together.

I personalized my banner by printing out letters from Microsoft Word and used them as patterns to trace on to sheets of orange, white and brown foam. Then I used Tacky Glue to adhere the letters to the flags. Here's the finished product:

With the banner done, I needed to tackle centerpieces. Since I have a dog, I have plenty of "dog" props including dog biscuits that we rarely give Belle--she likes to take them in the living room for private dining and litters the carpet with biscuit bits. I thought I could fill cylinder vases with the biscuits and top with a "1" sign. I used scrapbook paper, also from Michael's and on sale, in orange, brown, blue and solids/polka dots/stripes, and hot glued the sign to a dowel rod. The vases were on sale for 50 percent off at Hobby Lobby (two for $5.99). And...

Additional props... Happy Birthday confetti (dollar store), balloons (Party City), and tableware in blue and orange (Target), decorative scrapbook paper in bones and paw prints (Hobby Lobby) to adorn the table, and "doggie" bags filled with puppy gifts for our littlest guests. (Yes, I did find my son's name in confetti. It was $2+ for a tiny pack but well worth it.)

It was also critical to prominently feature the cutest dog of the whole cupcake topper bunch on the birthday cake. A local bakery, Lubeley's, did an incredible job recreating it and coordinated it with a really sweet "smash cake" for the birthday boy to attack.

Next up... the finished product.