Vintage Hot Air Balloon 1st Birthday Party

Last month, we celebrated Gabby's first birthday with a mid-day luncheon.  It had a "Growing Up, Up, Up" Hot Air Balloon theme complete with a vintage color scheme of pinks, turquoise, and cream.  I selected this theme mainly because it was an  excuse to Pinterest to my heart’s content!  Lots of inspiration to hone down to a few choice projects.  It is easy to go overboard, but I was budget minded.  


Invitation
Gabby had some wonderful photos taken by Couture Expressions Photography and this particular picture fit perfectly with a template offered by Tiny Prints.  The final product was a 5" x 7" card with a pearly shimmer in a metallic gold envelope.  I'm a sucker for a nice card (Papyrus is my obsession), so it was a great opportunity to design something memorable. 

Hot Air Ballon Display and Streamers

Gabby had about 10 paper lanterns hung up in a corner of her room as a little sensory display.  I found a DIY Cloud Light tutorial that inspired me to create this cloud out of paper lanterns and cotton batting.  It was a pretty straightforward project and didn't take much time.  We have hooks lining the opposite side of the wall, so I placed the cloud and hot air balloons on a curtain rod.  I filled gaps in the cloud structure with additional batting to give it fluffier appearance.  

Clipart + tape + twine + scissors = easy, themed display

Rag Banner High Chair
I took up sewing as a hobby and went crazy collecting fabric.  I used some of my low cost fabric and tulle to make a little rag banner to tie around this classy, painted Eddie Bauer high chair a good friend let me borrow.  The crown was curtesy of her grandma and grandpa. 
















Drink Station
To go with the color scheme, we served pink lemonade and blue punch.  For glasses, we used small mason jars with cute pink and turquoise paper straws.  For those who weren't interested in a  sugar rush, we had a stash of water chilling.



Favors
Another Pinterest-inspired project...Made cute miniature hot air balloons with polka dot popcorn boxes and skewers.  Our favors included a cute mini Board Book by Gyo Fujikawa, a colorful Fringed Party Blower, a small bag of Hershey's Miniatures, and a little Thank You card with a poem I wrote in honor of the big day.

Dr. Seuss, I am not,

but I'll give this a shot

Gabby's such an inspiring muse

Her birthday's today

Let's all jump and say, “Yay!"

Read along as my poem continues

A year has flown by

in the blink of an eye

Seven inches taller she's grown

Nine pounds change in weight

She arrived at just eight

Each week brought another milestone

She loves Mickey Mouse

singing in his clubhouse

The Hot Dog song makes her giggle and cheer

Doc McStuffins and friends

Oh, the fun never ends 

These two shows make her smile ear-to-ear

Peek-a-boo she does play

Reads her books everyday

Knows sign language for milk, more, and

 please

Stroller rides 'round the block

with the pugs as we walk,

she waves, ”Hi" to all who

she sees

Happy Birthday, my dear

It has been quite a year

and I would not change a single thing

Now you are one

Can’t believe 12 months done

I wonder what this year will bring

Dessert

Monkey in a Hot Air Balloon Cake

A local baker, Coastal Cake Creations, went above and beyond my expectations.  I sent her some ideas and she took them and ran!  In the end, we had a wonderful fondant hot air balloon cake (if you read my first post, you will know my husband likes monkeys so that's why there's a little monkey riding in the basket), a cute smash cake, and cupcakes with coordinating fondant toppers.
To display the cupcakes and smash cake, I repurposed an old chandelier from Craigslist that I purchased for $40.  I removed the old wires and a few unnecessary parts, spray painted it gold, and added some teardrop crystals that were used as Christmas ornaments.  It was bigger than I expected, but I was very happy with the final product.

We didn't end up giving Gabby the cake to smash because I found that it was so much cake to waste.  Instead, she had a more than enjoyable time destroying one of the cupcakes.  We ended up freezing the smash cake as the cupcakes and fondant cake were more than enough for the party.  It has since been enjoyed to celebrate her baptism that occurred a couple weeks later; I plan to blog about her baptism in another post.  The topper was inspired by another pinterest find.  It helps having a craft room filled with supplies as I was able to make the topper for no additional cost.

                     

Smash Cake and Topper

Name Display

Some paper mache letters from Hobby Lobby that were half-off, acrylic paint, and scrapbook paper made for a quick and easy name display for under $15.  I used electric blue ink from a stamping pad to give it a little more visual interest around the edges and here and there on the letters.






Digital "Chalkboard" Poster
With so many great deals on canvas prints these days, I turned this design by a friend of my mother-in-law into a 16" x 20" poster with highlights from the past year.  I don't have wonderful handwriting to make one of these myself and she did a great job!  I'll link her etsy shop once I get her information.  Bonus, after the party, this made for an adorable piece of nursery decor.

Thumbprint Momento

I asked guests to include a little thumbprint so I could have this little momento for her baby book.  I didn't manage to have everyone do it, but plan to connect each print with a black line to the hot air ballon basket.

Overall Decor




Being new to the area as of last fall, we are slowly making friends.  I was lucky enough to find a mom group of about 10, mostly first time moms with little one's around Gabby's age.  Also, our neighborhood is filled with many great families.   We had about 12 ladies and 8-10 little ones under 5 years old over to share in the celebration.  Also, Gabby’s dad was able to take a day off and spend with his little girl.  Gabby slept for a couple hours afterward.  All in all, it was an enjoyable party with yummy food, cute décor, and amazing company!

One tired, little party animal