DIY Party Decor Archives | The Sassy Southern

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

My sweet guy turned one this summer and I still can’t believe it. How is he already ONE?!?! As I was thinking of a theme for his first birthday party, I kept going back to his sweet safari decor in his nursery. So naturally, Jack’s Wild One made total sense!

Balloon Arch

I am really into balloon walls and arches these days. My rockstar of a husband is my muscle behind these projects and he is seriously such a trooper for inflating and hanging all of these balloons! You can buy balloon kits on Amazon or pick out your own balloons. If you are going to do a balloon arch, I highly recommend purchasing a balloon pump!

Greenery Backdrop and Wild One Balloons

I purchased these greenery panels from tableclothsfactory.com, spray painted them, and attached them with zip ties to create the size I wanted for my backdrop. Honestly, it was completely worth the money and effort to have this look. It made the perfect backdrop for the decor and photos. However, if you aren’t wanting to spend a little less time and money, check out these adorable and very realistic greenery backdrops!

I found these adorable WILD ONE balloons in copper on Etsy! I absolutely LOVED the color!

Monthly Milestone Banner

I LOVE these sweet banners! It is so fun to see how much my sweet guy has changed in just 12 months! I made this banner with my Cricut, but you can also purchase these on Etsy. Also, if you don’t have a Cricut Maker, but love making crafts, I highly recommend the investment. I saved SO much money on this party by making my own decor! I was also able to customize everything and create exactly what I was envisioning for the party.

Giant Balloon ONE

I first saw this idea on Pinterest (of course) and immediately texted it to my Jeremy, my rockstar of a husband. We bought two pieces of the 40 x 60 foam board from Hobby Lobby. I printed out the style of 1 I liked and Jeremy measured the foam board and cut it with an Exacto Knife. We then used hot glue to attach the sides of the one. Thankfully, the foam board bends really easily so that you can shape the letter. It is such a great statement piece and makes for a great photoshoot!

Sally The Giraffe

We just love Sally! My parents bought this as a “welcome home” gift when we brought Jack home from the hospital. She lives in Jack’s nursery, but was happy to be part of the decor for the party. You can purchase your own plush giraffe by Melissa and Doug on Amazon!

Safari Highchair Garland and One Banner

This was honestly so easy to make! I purchased ribbon and tied it on string to create the hassle garland. I created the ONE banner on my Cricut Maker machine and attached it to the garland. This was one of my favorite pieces for the party!

Safari Themed Cake and Smash Cake

I just adore this cake design from Sugar Bee Sweets Bakery in Arlington, Texas! For all my local DFW friends, I highly recommend this bakery! I sent them ideas of what I wanted and they created this perfect cake and smash cake! I made the Wild One cake topper with, yes you guessed it, my Cricut Maker!

Safari Tassel Garland

For this garland, I created and printed the safari animals on my Cricut Maker and made the tassels out of tissue paper.

Jack’s Wild One Safari Birthday Plates and Napkins

These adorable custom first birthday safari plates and napkins are on Zazzle. If you don’t need them customized, check out this super cute party pack!

Safari Themed Wild One Birthday Cookies

For all my DFW friends, The Velvet Crumb created these gorgeous cookies! I highly recommend!

First Birthday Milestone Sign

I designed this in Canva and had it printed at our local print shop for about $40. It made such a fun statement piece for the party!

Time Capsule Activity and Sign

I think this is such a fun and sweet activity for a first birthday party! Since Jack won’t remember the actual party, this is such a fun way to show him how many people were at his party to celebrate him and who love and support him! I made the sign in Canva and had it printed at a local print shop.

ONE Balloons With Tassel Garland

I purchased these balloons from Party City and added tassels (the same one form the tissue paper tassel garland) down the string of the balloons. They were SO cute!

Safari Stuffed Animals “Adopt Me”

This was such a fun activity for the kiddos to “adopt” a safari friend! I found these adorable safari stuffed animal party favors on Amazon for SUCH a great price!

Safari Party Headbands

These safari party headbands were so fun for the kiddos AND the adults! They looked so cute in all of our photos and added a really fun interactive and whimsical element to the party.

Wild One Safari Water Bottle Labels

This is such an easy and inexpensive touch to help keep the theme going throughout the party. I purchased this cute design on Etsy and used labels to print them at home.

Safari Animal Cookie Jar Party Favors

I found these cute jars at Marshalls and filled them with Safari animal crackers I found at Costco. I made the thank you tags on Canva and printed them on my printer at home.

Lion Veggie Plate

I had SO much fun planning and decorating for this party! I hope this post brings inspiration for an extra fun and Wild ONE for your little one!

Tropical Themed Balloon Arch for a Baby Girl Shower by The Sassy Southern

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

When I started planning the overall design for a tropical themed baby shower I was co-hosting, I really wanted a big focal point that guests saw the second they walked through the door. As I was searching Pinterest for inspiration, as we all do at some point during the day, I saw a pin from 100 Layer Cake-Let! They shared a balloon arch that they created for a flamingo themed birthday party. I was instantly obsessed. I saw that they used a balloon arch tutorial from The House That Lars Built. I watched the tutorial twice and felt that I could totally make this happen. I showed it to my husband and let him know that I need him to be my engineer for this project. Being the sweetest husband in the world, he jumped on board.

Since the party was held at the mommy-to-be’s home, I needed to make sure we weren’t going to destroy her wall! Painting her dining room wall was the last project she needed to handle. Since we didn’t really know what we were doing, we built the arch the night before and just prayed that it would stay! After about 2 1/2 hours of the hubs patiently standing on a ladder while listing to my directions, we finished our balloon arch. For our first, try, we were pretty happy with the results! The supply recommendations from The House That Lars Built was super helpful. Here are the materials that we used:

Hangman Products PCR5 Poster & Craft Tape, 5′, Roll, White – We bought this from Amazon for just $7.16. It is amazing! This was all that we used to stick the balloons and the balloon strip to the wall. Not only did it stay up for the shower, it stayed up for 7 DAYS and didn’t take any paint off of the wall! I also have more than half of the roll left to use on my next project.

Glue Dots Craft Roll, Contains 200 ( .5 Inch) Adhesive Craft Dots – We bought these from Amazon as on add-on to my larger order. However, you can find these at Walmart. We paid $3.60 for this as an Amazon add-on. These came in handy for sticking the smaller balloons on top of the larger balloons. We also used these to stick help the plants stay on the balloons.

Balloon Arch Decorating Strip 50ft – I honestly don’t know how we would have done this without the balloon arch decorating strip! It is extremely easy to work with and made designing the shape and final design extremely easy.

Balloons – I wanted very specific colors, so I ordered most of my balloons from Amazon. However, I did buy white and pink balloons from Hobby Lobby. I purchased the coral and peach colored balloons from Amazon.

Silk Palm Leaves – Amazon has a lot of great options! If you catch Hobby Lobby on their 50% off floral week, you can find some palm leaves at a reasonable price.

36” Giant Latex Balloons in Pink & White – I LOVE the giant 36” balloons but they are so expensive! I found a pack of 10 for only $13.99 on Amazon! I didn’t need 20 36” balloons for this baby shower, but I knew I would use them for future parties and events. I used one of these at the bottom of the arch on each side to have a nice base.

Electric Balloon Pump – Knowing that he would have the very special job of blowing up the balloons, my husband requested this particular piece of equipment and it was BEYOND worth it. He was able to inflate 100 balloons in 40 minutes. He could still breath and his hands weren’t even tired. This was a fantastic investment.

Learn how to make your own balloon arch from The House That Lars Built here!

This balloon arch was a huge hit at the baby shower and really tied the whole room together! It took us 3 hours and 10 minutes to inflate the balloons and put up the arch. We spent around $70 on supplies and we still have 18 of the 36” balloons, the electric balloon pump, balloon arch decorating strip, AND the craft tape and glue dots left over. These will come in handy for the next balloon arch!

Tag: DIY Party Decor

Wild ONE Safari First Birthday Party