A Toy Story Birthday

About A Toy Story Birthday

Wow- okay. This has been a lot. A few weeks before my niece’s birthday last year, my sister gave me the date for her birthday party- Sept. 9th. My first reaction was, “what’s the theme?” My sister didn’t really want to do one. However, this is the first real birthday she will fully understand and enjoy for herself. At the age of four, that’s when you really start to remember your life as you grow up, right?

The Options

Well, I gave my sister three options, seeing as Anabel only really loved three things consistently those days: Princesses, Toy Story or Candy. Now I was hoping for candy theme. Wouldn’t that be so awesome? I could create huge wrapped candy pieces to hang from the walls and go buy all those massive candies from places like It’s Sugar. It would be awesome! I was rooting for it. However, I didn’t think she’d go for it though and what mom would? Only a godmother could get away with that… if the parents didn’t know, LOL.

Well, I was right, the candy theme was out and my next hope was for the princesses because that’s just plain easy. Think about it, ruffles, tulle, and sparkly things galore. I started my Pinterest board with this in mind, finding ideas to make the front door look like a castle bridge over a river. Also, I found balloon arrangements that looked like castle columns and I was going to make her the cutest little crown ever made for a little girl (well, in her opinion at least, lol).

Unfortunately for me, my sister likes to challenge me and said Toy Story Theme. On top of it, we needed to find a Jessie character to come to the party as well. Fabulous. LOL.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: Please note that all information provided here is editorial. This post is for informational guidance and furthering education and is based solely on my experience and research. I am a participant in the Cricut Affiliate Program, the Dollar Tree Affiliate Program and Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Although this post may contain affiliate links and/or ads, this comes with no cost to you. I have not received any free items for this post. In addition to this, please note that I am not making any guarantees or promises regarding the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the information presented. These are just my personal experiences. Read more.

On the hunt I went and boy, was it a hunt.

 

 

Idea Stage

I decided I wanted to try out the following ideas based on the ideas I found on Pinterest and as things progress, I will add the links to the ideas that I created. I should warn you, I finally realized crafting is a full-time job. However, I already have a high demanding full-time job and I work 42 hours or more. Many of these ideas were tried between shifts and on my weekends. As you may guess, I didn’t have time for all of these.

My List of Ideas

1. A pennant banner.

Handmade in designs that are from the Toy Story realm. – This was the first one I worked on and it took some time to figure out and to do. Info to be posted soon.

2. A Happy Birthday sign to look like the Toy Story Logo.

This was simple but worked. Info to be posted soon.

3. Another banner with Happy Birthday Anabel in the theme’s colors.

I skipped over this idea because I focused more on the Toy Story Logo.

4. Make huge ‘Jumpin Monkeys’ garland to hang from the ceiling.

Extremely easy to make with your Cricut Machine, see it here.

5. Recreate Al’s Toy Barn facade.

This was pretty straightforward. I ended up recreating the facade but I much smaller version than I originally thought of.

6. Create a Pin the [Tail] on the “Mr. Potato Head.”

I ran out of time to do this.

7. Create something with all these little army men that I found at The Dollar Tree.

(Maybe have them doing something? Like hanging a sign?) -I ended up playing around with different ideas with these.

8. Create some sort of window cling for the glass doors?

I never figured this one out.

9. Make a representation of most of the characters.

(Maybe use green paper lanterns to make the little aliens.)- I ran out of time to try the lanterns. However, I did find a way to represent Woody, Buzz, Weezy, Jessie, and Bullseye.

10. Make confetti in the shape of a cowboy hat, badge, boot, and horseshoe.

Not enough time.

11. Make a spaceship? Maybe a big cardboard one?

I ran out of time, so I bought a Buzz Lightyear piñata for $19.99 at Party City.

12. Take western style ‘doors’ like into a saloon, that swing open.

Maybe for the hallways? I really didn’t have enough time for a lot of this stuff.

13. Make a balloon archway for the front of the house.

I hit many snags in this idea, but we eventually figured out a great alternative.- Stay Tuned for the info. I ended up creating my own cow-print balloons.

 

14. Make cow print tablecloths-

I ended up just buying them from Amazon. Find them here with Prime 1 Day Shipping. 

15. Make shirts to go with the theme.

I ended up making just one for Anabel at my sister’s request.

16. Create jumbo sized Alphabet Blocks.

This one was easy enough and cheap.

17. Make a bunch of cowboy hats to look like Woody’s.

It took some time to figure out, but once I did, it was simple to finish all of them.

 

Some Additional Notes

I also realized that this project would have been impossible without a Cricut machine. If you are a real serious crafter and you do not have a cutting machine- you have NO CLUE what you are missing out on. I crafted for years without one and never even thought to buy one of these machines. When I was asked to make these diaper invitations, I found a really great reason to buy one of them. I now use it every day and for a large portion of my crafts.

I should also mention, there was no budget for this party. My end goal was to not go extremely overboard. As a result, I found some cheaper ways to make this party as awesome as it was. I made countless trips to the Dollar Tree.