Pink Mod Monkey Party - Part 2

Well, Boogey's 3rd birthday party (a Pink Mod Monkey party) was a fabulous success! Everyone had a great time and the decorations all turned out spectacular, if I do say so myself! (Actually, I did get a lot of compliments on everything so it isn't just me ;)

As mentioned HERE, the theme was "Pink Mod Monkey" and I made great use out of the file that I had purchased from Cupcake Cutiees. {See Part 1 of this party post where I decided on the theme and made the invitations HERE}

Here are a couple of collages and then I'll show you some of the details.

Pink Mod Monkey Party Decor

Pink Mod Monkey Cupcakes

This is how the dining room looked:

Mod Monkey Party Table setup

First, I used the monkey "tag" images in the downloaded file (discussed HERE) to make my own stickers to decorate some plain white cups ($2.99 for 24) I had purchased at the party store. I bought a pack of sticker paper at Staples ($13 for 30 sheets - not a bad price considering I only had to use 1 sheet to make 12 stickers). I simply sized the images to the size I wanted and then printed it out on the sticker paper using a color printer. I used a 2" circle punch to cut them out and the girls helped me stick them onto the cups. A cheap and easy way to customize your own cups!

DIY Customized Mod Monkey Cups

In the cups, I placed a pink or green straw (from a multi-pack I already had). As usual, I cut about an inch off the bottom of the straw to lessen the risk of a tip-over since being used by pre-schoolers. I bought packs of pink and green paper plates and napkins from Target for only $2.99 each. I think there were 80 plates/napkins in each pack, so they were really a good deal for the price. I placed everything on a pink plastic tablecloth ($2.99 from Target for a two-pack) which I layered over a white cloth tablecloth I already had.

I liked how the dinner-size green plates looked like "chargers".

Pink and green balloons added extra flair to each chair and were sent home with the kids at the end of the party.

Who doesn't love balloons?!

Once-again, I used the images in my downloaded file to create a fun banner. I cut the triangles out of some cardstock I already had (from my old scrapbooking stash) and simply glued on the images I had printed out on my color printer. On one of the triangles, I added sticker letters (again, from my scrapbooking stash) to spell out "Happy Birthday". A hole punch and some string and you've got a cute banner/bunting!

DIY Mod Monkey Birthday Banner

The polka dots at the top were from one of the "papers" included in the download file - printed on a color printer, cut and glued on.

Stickers spell out "Happy Birthday"

I picked up a few pink monkeys at the Dollar Tree and hung them in various places around the room. They were supposed to be for Valentine's Day but the colors worked for the party and the theme was perfect. I cut off the cheesy red bows they had around their necks and they were a great addition to the decor.

Dollar Tree monkeys added some fun when hung from the chandelier.

Goody bags were lined up along the buffet. I bought these pink paper bags at Target in a pack of 12. (I think it was only $1.99 for the pack). I used my scallop scissors to create a little fancy detail along the top and then placed some more of my homemade stickers in the center.

DIY Customized Party Favor Bags

Inside each bag I placed a super-cute little stuffed monkey ($14.99 for 12 at Oriental Trading), a few monkey tattoos ($4.99 for 72 tattoos at Oriental Trading) and a few Lollipops left over from my Lollipop Flower Pot project (seen HERE).

Party Favors from Oriental Trading

At each end of the table, I placed one of my homemade Dollar Tree Hurricanes (see tutorial for the DIY hurricanes HERE). Inside, I first layered some brown Dollar Tree paper shred (I split one bag between the 2 hurricanes). On top of that, I placed a crumpled-up pink paper napkin and then a green paper napkin. And lastly, I poured in some pink and brown Whoppers (one box of each in each hurricane - bought them at the Dollar Tree). Around the base of the hurricane, I wrapped some of the perfectly matching ribbon I had found at Michaels in the Dollar Spot and another print out from my downloaded file. So cute yet so inexpensive!

Pink Mod Monkey Hurricane

In the center of the table were the cupcakes. I made them myself (with a little help from Betty Crocker! ;) coloring the yellow cake batter pink to keep with the theme. Half of the cupcakes were topped with pink frosting and sprinkles. I made my own cupcake toppers (first time!) using an image from the download file.

DIY Pink Mod Monkey Cupcake Topper

Pink Mod Monkey Cupcake Toppers

The other half of the cupcakes were decorated as... monkeys! I found this idea out there on the internet somewhere and knew I just had to replicate it. I started with chocolate frosting and then added cut cookies, M&M's, and black and red gel to create the faces.

Cookies cut with a knife make up the face and ears of the monkey

DIY Monkey Cupcakes

SweetPea did everything but the gel nostrils and mouth so even a 4-yr old can do this decorating!

DIY Monkey Cupcakes

In the kitchen, we had some more food and snacks. My Lollipop Flower Pot [see tutorial HERE] was placed on a Dollar Tree polka dot placemat at the back of the table. I made a couple more (smaller) Dollar Tree Hurricanes, wrapped them with some more ribbon and poured in some pink and green M&M's (the pink M&M's were from a Valentine's bag of M&M's and the green ones were literally picked out of a regular big bag one by one! LOL).

Another homemade hurricane housed some M&M's

And some homemade chocolate-dipped pretzels added some extra sweetness to the table. These are so easy to make and are DEE-LISH! (see tutorial HERE from another party)

Homemade chocolate dipped pretzels satisfy those sweet-salty cravings!

The only organized activity we did was to play "Pin the Belly-button on the Monkey". I "splurged" on a jumbo blow-up monkey from Oriental Trading (only $12.99 so really not all that expensive). I used my circle punch to cut out pink and green circles for the belly button and the kids had fun taking turns trying to place it in the right spot. Here is the cute guy before we attacked him with spots. :)

Whew!! That was a long and picture-laden post! But I know how much I like to see all the details of other people's parties, so hopefully you do too. :) If you have any questions about anything, feel free to contact me.

**If you are interested in purchasing any of the Mod Monkey items seen here (i.e. - cupcake toppers, stickers) please contact me to discuss options.**

This project was featured! Thank you so much - I am truly honored!!

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{Lollipop} Flower Pot

So a couple of days ago, I told you about the "Pink Monkey" birthday party I am planning for Boogey. I've got lots of DIY decorations planned which incorporate this theme and have finally crafted the first one.

A {Lollipop} Flower Pot!

Now before I go any further, I want to provide full disclosure that this is not my original idea. Truth is, I saw this project over on Primitive and Proper earlier this month and decided that I totally had to steal borrow this idea (and don't worry, I've already let Cassie know it was coming - she's cool! If you haven't checked our her BLOG, you really should. She is especially talented at refinishing old furniture! :)

Following Cassie's lead, I gathered all of my supplies:

- Small metal pail - $1.19 at Michaels (using a 40% off coupon)

- Two pack of 4" circle floral foam - $1.00 at Dollar Tree

- 3/8" Dowel  - $0.59 at Michaels for a 36" piece (I cut it down at home to a shorter size)

- Lollipops - ~$8.00 at CVS for a bag of 200 DumDums (but we only used about 60 of them for this project - lots of leftovers!!)

- Two 4" circles cut out of card stock from my old scrapbooking stash (I used my new Silouette to cut these but you could simply trace the floral foam onto card stock and cut with scissors)

- Two Flower and monkey images printed out on copy paper (from the file I purchased online which I discussed HERE)

- Glue stick and hot glue gun 

First, I cut one of the foam circles into a square that would fit into the pail. I shoved some of the leftover pieces into the gaps to make it more snug (not pictured below).

Next, I stuck one end of the dowel into the pot and the other end into the remaining foam circle.

My "camera-shy" girl just couldn't help herself...

Then, I just stuck the lollipops into the circle working my way around the edge until the whole thing was covered fairly well. Even the SweetPea helped a little with this task - she was very proud to assist in a special project for her little sis!

I had originally planned on using some brown paper shreds to cover up the foam in the pail (similar to what Cassie had done), but my "flower" seemed kind of top heavy - I think I cut my dowel a little too long. So I took some glass beads that happened to be in a jar nearby and dumped them on top of the floral foam in the pail. {Thanks to the Heelamonster for the great suggestion!!}. Doesn't look quite as nice as the paper shred would have, but it'll work and adds the stability I needed.

Next, I glued the green flower and monkey image to the pink circle using a glue stick. And then glued the pink circle to the foam circle using my hot glue gun.

I lucked out at Michaels and found this super cute ribbon in the Dollar Bargain Bin. It couldn't be a more perfect match!! So I tied some around the dowel (which I was too lazy to paint) and.... VOILA!

I think it came out pretty cute!

Could have glued it a little better... but, eh, they're 3 year olds!

Not too bad for about $3!
:)

Pink "Mod" Monkey Party - Part 1

So Boogey's birthday is coming up in a few weeks. She'll be 3. I really can't believe it - time sure flies!! Anyway, she wants a "pink monkey" party (that girl LOVES her monkeys! Which, to be honest, is rather fitting - she is quite the monkey herself!). Of course, I wasn't quite sure what, exactly, she meant when she said she wanted a "pink monkey" party but I figured I'd do my own interpretation. So I scoured the internet for ideas and was really drawn to the "Mod Monkey" theme such as seen here. I showed it to Boogey and she approved whole-heartedly! :)

But being the cheapo frugal girl that I am, I didn't really want to spend a ton of money on party supplies such as "theme" plates and napkins. And I wanted to be able to personalize some of my own crafts (such as the banner I made for SweetPea's Batman party). So I searched online for a free image of this monkey but just couldn't find one that would print up nice and clear. *grrrrr*

Then I found the website Cupcake Cutiees. They sell a TON of downloadable .jpgs and .pngs and had the perfect reproduction of the 'official' mod monkey. The file only cost me $3.00 to download and provided me with the perfect designs/paper/images to allow me to do my own projects. The one I chose was called the "Girl MOD Monkey" (seen below). [Unfortunately, it looks like it is no longer available for purchase - sorry! :( ]  It came with the following virtual items: 4 papers, 2 tags, 3 flower images, and 4 monkey images.

I used one of the "tag" images and the big dot "paper" to create the party invitation. I assembled everything in Powerpoint to my liking and then just printed them out on plain copy paper using a color printer. I used a glue stick to adhere the printed out pages to some blank notecards I already had. Here is what my invite images looked like before printing and glueing. (names/dates/info have been changed for privacy purposes):

Homemade Mod Monkey Invitation - outside

Homemade Mod Monkey Invitation - inside

There will be 10 kids there under 5 years old. I wish we could invite more, but we just can't handle a huge party in our home so we had to make some difficult cuts! :(   Anyway, I've got some fun ideas planned for decorations and activities for this party!! I'll be blogging about a few of them as they come to life. And the rest you'll see at the big reveal after the party. So stay tuned!!

**See Part 2 of this Pink Mod Monkey Party (including decorations/food/etc.) HERE!!

{Legal Stuff - I have not been compensated in any way by  Cupcake Cutiees for my mention of their website. My opinions are my own and I paid full price for the download file.}