Every year without fail my oldest comes up with a great idea for her birthday. She has never had a character theme, she always picks something off the wall that lets me get really creative. This year she decided back in December what she wanted and never changed her mind. She wanted a bubble gum themed party. So I put together an inspiration board, started hoarding gum and did a lot of D.I.Y. In the end the party came off great and Iris said "it's even better than I dreamed of" which makes it all worth while for me! So here are the pictures and what we did.
The dessert table. I always do a dessert table, and it is the centerpiece of our party; where the theme all comes together.
No party is complete at our house without a selection of vintage sodas and some super cute straws. I get the sodas at World Market and the straws came from
Sweet Lulu's. The bucket was a 4th of July find from Walmart last year.
I love fabric buntings. This one that I made with a variety of colors has seen lots of use and it works for lots of themes.
This is another multipurpose decoration. This garland has been used at at least 4 parties. I love using the command adhesive hooks for hanging. The balloons are just 4 tied together and secured with a rubber band and a slipknot.
I bought bags of ribbons at Hobby Lobby and combined it with some red polka dot ribbon and tied them to the chairs.
The favors were baby food jars that my sister in law sweetly saved for me. We spray painted the lids red, filled them with gumballs and tied a red ribbon on them. The labels were some that I made in Photoshop.
I borrowed a gumball machine from a friend and filled it with gum from the party store.
The table had a handmade runner, a sign made in photoshop, a picture of the birthday girl and a gumball machine made from a flower pot, saucer and ivy bowl. We also gave out punch balls to each kid.
The background was made from a sheet of foam board, covered in wrapping paper and then decorated with a cardboard number 7 that I covered in crepe paper fringe, crepe paper ruffles, ribbon, pictures and paper fans. The best part is you can reuse the foam board for your next party if you just tape everything to it.
An assortment of gum. The bags are from sweet lulu's and Hobby Lobby. The table runner is just a strip of fabric, the "ribbon curl" is actually bubble gum tape.
Gumball machine cupcakes. The wrappers are from
Bakeitpretty. I got the idea from
here.
The rest of the cupcakes. The wrappers are also from Bake it pretty. The toppers are from Hobby Lobby. The gumball machine is from Joanns. The cupcake stand is by Wilton.
These were one of my favorite things at the party. I dipped oreos in colored candy melts and then added a highlight in white chocolate to make them look like gumballs.
Pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate and covered in nonpariels. I filled a glass vase with gum to keep them from tipping over.
Last but not least, the cake. I made the topper from a wooden number 7 bought at Hobby Lobby. We spray painted it red and I glued gumballs on to it. I also glued a Popsicle stick to the back to insert in the cake. The cake was iced in buttercream and decorated with fondant and gumballs.
Thanks for looking, now I'm off to plan the next big party for 4th of July!
-Kim
