Party Decorations...On the Cheap!

Alright you all!  This is going to be my last rainbow tea party post.  (Are you doing a happy dance?  I am.  I'm partied out!)  The reason though that I decided to do this post though was when it hit me that we spent less than $5 on party decorations.  Like what?  When does that happen?  I didn't feel like we were skimping.  It just sort of happened that way.  What I realized though was that this party taught me a lot about how decorating can be inexpensive, and a lot of it comes down to that wonderful thing called tissue paper. 

1).  Use what you have.  I know this seems like a "duh" statement, but when I started to let got of the tea party "should" look like, things sort of just fell into place.  I realized that my regular dishes were rainbow colored, so instead of going and trying to collect china tea cups (I don't have any) we just decided to embrace the mismatched color scheme.  Suddenly everything I had "matched" the theme.  The more color, the better.  I used the butterfly placemats from Lu's bug party  and recycled a butterfly banner too.

2) Avoid "themed" plates" and napkins.  Barbie, Princess, etc.  cost more than just regular old colored paper plates from the dollar store.  Or better yet? Use regular plates and load them up into the dishwasher.

3)  The dollar store.  It's awesome ok?  I already had a few plastic tablecloths, so I bought a few more colors, draped them over a bookshelf and "tada" instant photo booth.  They'd be great for a backdrop for a buffet table too!

4)  Tissue paper-Tissue paper-tissue paper!  All the tissue paper decorations for the party were made using 1--that's right, one--tissue paper back from the dollar store.  That's a lot of bang for one buck! 

5)  Make your own flowers.  That's right.  It goes back to #4...but yeah, tissue paper flowers are cheaper than real flowers....and you can keep them after the party too.  Lu LOVED helping me make these.

Want to see how we made all the tissue paper decorations?  Keep reading below!


First the tissue paper pom poms:

I took 4 sheets, made and accordion fold:

Snipped the ends:

Tied it in the middle:

Separated the tissue paper sheets:

And tada!  Finished!

And here's how to make the flowers...

Fold 3 tissue paper square into 4 quarters:

Draw on flower "petals:"

Cut out:

 

Insert a pipe cleaner with a bead (and twist underneath the flower):

Tada!  Lu's super proud of her bouquet...

Hope you all have a great week!  It's going to be a busy one here!